The race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump likely hinges on Pennsylvania, where voters have been deadlocked

Now, the world watches Pennsylvania.

The state could decide the outcome of the most charged presidential election in recent history after a half billion in spending and dozens of visits by the two candidates here.

With voting underway, the nation will anxiously wait to hear who nets the state’s coveted 19 Electoral College votes and whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump ascends to power after an unprecedented election, which saw Trump survive an assassination attempt in Western Pennsylvania and Harris replace President Joe Biden as Democratic standard-bearer in the span of eight days.

Either outcome will make history.

Harris would become the first woman in the Oval Office, in addition to being the first Asian American and the first Black woman.

» READ MORE: Voters head to the polls in Pennsylvania; what high turnout today could mean for reporting results

Trump’s reelection, meanwhile, would follow his felony conviction — the first for a former and potentially future president — and come amid a string of still pending criminal cases related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 results.

While voters here were expecting an uncertain finish to Election Day, the anxiety now sets in for both sides after enduring a year of campaigning laser-focused on Pennsylvania and an election for which both parties describe the stakes as extremely high. Election officials around the state prepared to count through the night with their work under a national microscope in the tight race.

Harris ran a race pitching herself as a fighter for the middle class and a protector of women’s reproductive rights, both issues that fueled a historic gender gap. She contrasted her background with Trump, who she cast as a self-absorbed millionaire and a fascist.

Trump ran with the benefit of being the candidate most trusted by voters on the No. 1 issue, the economy, and aimed to tie Harris to more of the same Democratic governance. He zeroed in on male voters, who support him at much higher numbers than Harris, and repeatedly used warnings of the perils of illegal immigration to rally and expand his base.

» READ MORE: Harris and Trump are navigating Pennsylvania’s gender gap with bro podcasts and ladies’ room Post-its

The sprint to Election Day focused almost incessantly on Pennsylvania with more than 100 campaign stops by Trump, Harris, or their running mates in the last 10 months and a barrage of ads pumped into airwaves, mailboxes, and radio to secure victory here.

The state played host to the one and only debate between Harris and Trump, at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia and became the 2024 campaign trail playground.

In the closing days of the race, Trump did a photo op serving fries at McDonald’s in Bucks County and Harris went to a Puerto Rican restaurant and barber shop in North Philadelphia. Both candidates spent the final day before the election crisscrossing the state with Harris capping her campaign with a rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that evening.

Rallies and retail stops spanned the state’s big cities, affluent suburbs, rural towns, and Rust Belt communities. Through it all, the state’s voters appeared deadlocked in their decision between two very different visions for America’s future.

» READ MORE: Pa. officials have begun processing mail ballots. Here’s what to expect for the rest of the day and night.

There were reasons for both sides, despite months of uncertainty, to be optimistic about Pennsylvania.

Democrats pointed to their party’s wins in the state in recent years and how poorly some Trump-aligned candidates performed here in the 2022 midterms when a Democratic blue wave swept over the state, despite projections it could be a tough year for President Joe Biden’s party. And while registration numbers showed a shift Republican, Democrats continue to outnumber Republicans in new registrations here. Harris ran a campaign aiming to turn out her party’s base voters and extend her reach to anti-Trump Republicans.

For Republicans, Trump’s raw vote totals only grew from 2016 to 2020 in the state.

Republican registrations here had increased rapidly over the last four years, cutting the Democratic edge in the state. And Trump has long had robust appeal in the state, which is older, whiter and less college-educated than the country as a whole. Trump’s path in Pennsylvania was similar to his 2016 campaign, with frequent rallies — often attended by tens of thousands — in rural and Rust Belt areas.

Across Pennsylvania on Tuesday, voters expressed unease over months in the political spotlight but hope for their chosen candidate.

Germantown resident Lorenzo Hough, 73, grew up in South Philly with six sisters and cast his vote for Harris.

“I am convinced that now is the time. I was blessed to see a Black man as president. I think I’m going to see a Black woman as president,” he said. “As my grandmother used to say, ‘Lord, you can come take me now.’”

Philadelphia turnout could be key to the election and there were anecdotal signs of strong turnout in the earlier part of the day. But the city, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-to-1, was also expected to see its highest in-person turnout since 2016, as fewer voters opted to vote by mail this year.

“Turnout is just beyond anything we could imagine,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said at a stop at George Washington High School in the Northeast. “Everywhere I go, people have talked about it. ...the energy is palpable.”

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania voters are anxious and wary — and resolved: ‘Our democracy is at stake.’

Outside of the city in the crucial suburbs, voter Cheryl Whiteley, 62, of Chadds Ford, said crime, followed by the economy, motivated her to vote for Trump.

“It’s not bad out here yet, but I won’t even go into Philadelphia, and I don’t want crime to come out here,” she said.

In ruby red Lancaster County, Kim Ellsworth, 56, of East Earl said she’s slept “like a baby,” confident in Trump’s chances. “It’s a slam dunk,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the rebuilding” under Trump, Ellsworth added. “People have no idea what’s coming. And it’s going to be flat out amazing.”

Cynthia Cassano was far more anxious as her eyes welled with tears in the parking lot of her Norristown polling place.

Cassano, a registered Republican who voted for Harris, said the emotions of the day hit her all at once when a reporter asked why she had cast her ballot for Harris.

“I’m tired of the hate,” she said, dabbing her eyes. “I really am.”

Cassano called Harris “a mama bear who will take care of us,” while Trump is “the papa bear who might eat the cubs.”

With pollsters and pundits predicting razor-thin margins, Elizabeth Occhiolini knows that her vote matters. But as of lunchtime Tuesday, she still had no idea who she was voting for.

The Northeast Philly native, 44, was paid to hand out campaign literature for Republican candidates, but said she was still torn between Trump and Harris.

“I don’t know,” Occhiolini said. “I’m gonna use a quarter and flip it, and then I’ll decide then.”

Staff writers Kristen Graham, Erin McCarthy, Gillian McGoldrick, Wendy Ruderman and Jenn Ladd contributed to this article.