The presidency, Congress, Minnesota Legislature and more are up for grabs on the general election Tuesday.

The Minnesota Daily will provide live updates to this story as results come. Polls closed in Minnesota at 8 p.m.

Vice President Kamala Harris vs. former President Donald Trump

Trump was declared the winner following his win in Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press (AP). 

So far, former President Donald Trump has won 277 electoral votes and Vice President Kamala Harris has won 224 electoral votes, according to reporting from AP.

“I got really hopeful, actually, when she was announced as the presidential candidate after Biden dropped out because she’s just very hopeful,” first-year University student Trystyn Johnson who voted Tuesday said. 

Not every student is jumping on the Harris bandwagon.

“She can’t make up her mind on what her exact goal is, right?” first-year University student and Tuesday voter Samved Mamillapai said. “She’s warping her opinion to public media perception, right. I don’t see Donald Trump being that as much he has his mind clearly set on what to do.”

Sabato’s Crystal Ball, an election forecaster, lists Minnesota as a “likely Democrat” state. Polls collected by FiveThirtyEight, another election forecaster, give Harris a 5.8 percentage point lead over Trump in Minnesota.

JoAnn Hell, a Republican supporter at the GOP watch party in Bloomington, said she is confident that Trump will defeat Harris this election cycle.

“The basic premise is being a senior, I can look at the country from a different perspective,” Hell said. “Therefore, did not hear any sort of concrete ways to deal with some of the issues from Kamala. I listened to every word, but I really cannot even voice one of her policies. So what brought me here tonight is to celebrate and to trust that Trump is going to win.”

Many typical Democratic voters threatened to pull their support from the Democratic Party over their dissatisfaction with the Party’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Colleen Brady, who is attending the DFL’s watch party in St. Paul, said Harris is missing the mark on Gaza but is better than the alternative.

“I’m not happy about how they’re supporting the genocide over there, but my support is still behind her,” Brady said. “Because otherwise, it’s what else is there? I think the complete destruction of the West Bank and Gaza as we know. I think that’s what he (Trump) would do. When he says like, ‘The war would be over,’ it’s not because he would bring peace to the region. He would bring destruction.”

Minnesota’s 8th District Rep. Pete Stauber said to the election night watch party crowd that Republicans are going to take back the Minnesota Legislature following two years of a DFL trifecta.

“We’re gonna take back Minnesota’s House and the governor was just gonna have to deal with a Republican House, come early next year,” Stauber said.

DFL fighting to retain its trifecta in Minnesota

The DFL party controls the Minnesota House, Senate and Governorship. The Minnesota House is 70-64 in favor of the DFL. The Senate is split evenly 33-33 and broken by the Democratic  Gov. Tim Walz.

First-year University student Namo Afamou said the trifecta was simply more effective than a divided government would have been.

“Unfortunately, we live in a time where it’s very polarized, and if you want anything to be done, one party needs to have majority of the control,” Afamou said.

With the DFL trifecta last legislative session, the party passed legislation that provided free K-12 school meals, restored voting rights for felons who completed their sentences, reproductive rights protections and greater cannabis legalization.

The “Minnesota Miracle,” as DFL politicians call everything passed by the trifecta, would not have happened if the progressive coalition needed to get legislation through a Republican House, Senate or Governor.

 U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives up for grabs

While each party fights for the top job, the effectiveness of each candidate as president will be decided by which party takes control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Most election forecasters are expecting Republicans to easily take the Senate while the House of Representatives will be a toss-up.

Incumbent Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is expected to beat Republican challenger Royce White.

Many election forecasters believe the current Democratically-controlled Senate will go to the Republican Party with FiveThirtyEight predicting a Republican Senate about 91% of the time in 1,000 simulations. Republicans are slightly favored by FiveThirtyEight to retain control of the House with Republicans keeping the House majority 51% of the time in their simulations.

Rep. Ilhan Omar is projected to beat Republican challenger Dalia Al-Aqidi, according to AP.

Ballot amendments

City and state ballot amendments will also be on ballots this year. Minnesota as a whole will vote on whether to continue using lottery funds for environmental conservation efforts.

In Minneapolis, residents will decide if they should increase property taxes to better fund local schools. The sister city of St. Paul has a ballot amendment to move their municipal elections from odd years to even years in hopes of increasing voter turnout.

This story was last updated at 9:33 a.m. Wednesday.