US presidential race: Trump takes lead but battleground states too close to call

Republican Donald Trump was leading in the US presidential election on Tuesday, broadly drawing more support than he did in his failed 2020 campaign, though the result remained unclear in battleground states that will decide the winner.

Trump, bidding to become the first former president to return to the White House in more than 100 years, had won 227 Electoral College votes compared with 165 for his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, with a third of the vote counted.

With Trump holding leads in battleground states Georgia and North Carolina, Harris' clearest path to victory remained through the "Blue Wall" of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. A candidate needs a total of at least 270 votes in the 538-member, state-by-state Electoral College to claim the presidency.

Decision Desk HQ was alone in projecting Trump would win Georgia and North Carolina. Other media outlets and Edison had yet to call the two races.

Trump picked up much more support in the polls from Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and among lower-income households that have keenly felt the sting of price rises since the last presidential election in 2020.

Trump won 45 per cent of Hispanic voters nationwide, trailing Harris with 53 per cent but up 13 percentage points from 2020, according to the provisional exit polls.

Currency and bond markets appeared to bet on Trump returning to power.

But the race, as expected, was coming down to seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.