WASHINGTON—Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, winning 279 electoral votes as of the morning of Nov. 9.
His opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, received 218 electoral votes, with some states still too close to call on Nov. 9. A presidential candidate needs 270 of the Electoral College's 538 votes to win.
Clinton received a slight plurality in the popular vote, 59.4 million vs. Trump's 59.2 million, in the early count.
Senate Democrats, who had hoped to gain a majority in the election, gained only one seat, going from 46 to 47 out of 100. House Democrats gained three seats, from 188 to 191 out of 435.
Many business organizations, including the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Trucking Associations, issued formal statements congratulating President-Elect Trump on his victory.
“We look forward to working with him on policies to strengthen small business, which represents 99.7 percent of all U.S. employers and which provides jobs for 58 million Americans,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan.
“During the campaign, he (Trump) highlighted the need to create jobs, and recognized that improving our nation's infrastructure is critical to strengthening the economy,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear.
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, congratulated Trump “for a successful campaign and for articulating a vision of a stronger economy with manufacturing at the center of a strategy to rebuild the middle class.
“President-Elect Trump and Congress must come together on much-needed investment that will put Americans to work building and repairing our country's infrastructure,” Paul said.
Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO of the Rubber Manufacturers Association, said the RMA would work with the Trump administration as it had with previous administrations.
“RMA will engage with the incoming administration's transition team and work to educate incoming appointees, policymakers and new members of Congress about the issues important to U.S. tire manufacturers and the people and communities we serve,” Luke said.
The United Steelworkers had no official statement about the outcome of the election as of Nov. 9. However, USW International President Leo W. Gerard issued a blog piece Nov. 8 praising Secretary Clinton.
“The year 2001, when I became president of the United Steelworkers and Hillary Clinton took office and a U.S. senator from New York, was a desperate, terrible time for steelworkers,” Gerard wrote.
“As I fought to save jobs, I found that some lawmakers were true to their word, and Sen. Hillary Clinton was one of them,” he wrote. “She never let workers down.”
In a mock election at the Global Tire Expo in Las Vegas the first week of November, the Tire Industry Association found that 56.81 percent of 725 attendees voted for Trump, 43.19 percent for Clinton.
After the election, TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield said he expected some good things to happen for tire dealers in a Trump administration, but added there are some question marks.
“With a Republican White House, Senate and House of Representatives, there are a lot of issues the GOP could advance, including estate tax repeal which is a big issue for us,” Littlefield said. “We'll see a lot of positive things happening.”
Other items that could be changed or repealed to TIA members' benefit include minimum wage laws, family leave, the new Labor Department overtime pay rules and the Affordable Care Act, with its punitive insurance rules for small business, according to Littlefield.
But there are some things Trump may do that would not be beneficial to tire dealers, such as new tariffs and value-added taxes on imported tires, according to Littlefield.
Surface transportation funding may also be a problem under Trump if he backs funding methods harmful to TIA members, such as fuel taxes or vehicle-miles-driven taxes, he said.
“Trump said we must spend more on infrastructure,” Littlefield said. “We all agree with that, but funding is another matter.”