Harris,meanwhile,underperformed President Joe Biden’s 2020 results in key constituencies,including suburban and inner-city voters.

Harris’ campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon sent an email to Democratic campaign staff assuring them that Harris still had a path to victory despite Trump’s lead.

“While we continue to see data trickle in from the Sun Belt states,we have known all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes lies through the Blue Wall states,” O’Malley Dillon said.

“And we feel good about what we’re seeing.”

The so-called “blue wall” states – Pennsylvania,Michigan and Wisconsin – were seen as critical to a Harris victory,but Trump is performing better than he did in 2020 in all three states.

Only one previous US president has lost an election and returned to the White House to serve a non-consecutive term:Grover Cleveland in 1893.

The Democrats installed Harris as their nominee in July after Biden put in a widely panned debate performance against Trump,a move that led to a swift poll surge as disaffected Democrats returned to the party.

But the race soon settled into a narrow and grinding contest of attrition as Harris struggled to overcome voter anger at high inflation and unauthorised migration across the US southern border.

Questions will be asked about the role of gender in the race and whether some male voters flinched at the idea of a woman in the White House,as they did in 2016 when Clinton ran for the White House.

The Trump campaign put significant effort into winning votes among African American and Latino male voters,a bid that appeared to pay off according to exit polls.

More to come

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