Donald Trump’s return to the White House might be especially historic for the Inland Empire.

While he lost California to Vice President Kamala Harris, election results showed Trump leading the vice president 49.35% to 48.37% in Riverside County and 51.17% to 46.43% in San Bernardino County as of Friday evening, Nov. 8.

Those numbers could change with hundreds of thousands of ballots remaining to be counted in both counties. But if they hold, Trump would be the first GOP presidential nominee since George W. Bush in 2004 to carry the Inland Empire.

LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: See a chart of the latest vote counts

A Democrat and Oakland native who also served as California’s attorney general and one of its U.S. senators, Harris carried the Golden State and its 54 electoral votes — 20% of what’s needed to win the White House.

Statewide, she led Trump 57.6% to 39.8% as of Friday afternoon, Nov. 8. Trump, however, carried enough states to win the Electoral College and thus the presidency.

Harris’ lead could grow as more votes are tallied. But right now, Harris is running behind Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, all of whom won California with at least 60% of the vote.

Harris didn’t visit the Inland Empire during the campaign, but Trump held an October rally in Coachella — an outside-the-box choice considering how, in 2020, Biden overwhelmingly won the heavily Latino city in the Riverside County desert.

Trump’s visit “really did motivate the base,” Riverside County Republican Party Chairman Matthew Dobler said.

“I think Republicans were very excited to get out and vote,” he said. “I also think that there are a lot of independent (and) no-party-preference (voters) and Democrats who agree with Donald Trump’s vision for America.”

The Inland Empire also includes parts of eastern Los Angeles County. Unsurprisingly, Harris is leading Trump in deep-blue L.A. County, 67% to 33%.

After battling GOP supremacy for decades, Inland area Democrats made inroads after sweeping several highly competitive legislative and congressional races in 2012.

Today, Democrats make up a plurality of registered voters in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. But they’re a lower percentage of voters — 39% in Riverside County and 40% in San Bernardino County — compared to California, where the percentage is 46%.

The region isn’t as liberal as Los Angeles or the Bay Area. Despite cruising to election and reelection, progressive Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom lost Riverside County in 2018 and 2022, and while the 2021 attempt to recall him failed, Riverside County was the largest California county to support the recall.

Democrat Adam Schiff will be California’s next U.S. senator. But he’s trailing Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“This indicates that voters in both parties voted more generically by party than for a candidate,” Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, said via email. “Donald Trump may not appreciate being seen as a generic candidate, but he’ll certainly take the results (while) making gains in the popular vote.”

The Inland Empire also appears to be veering right on several statewide ballot measures.

Proposition 3, which enshrines same-sex couples’ right to marry in California’s constitution, won statewide. But it’s narrowly losing in San Bernardino County and is underperforming its statewide average in Riverside County.

Proposition 36, a conservative-backed ballot measure that stiffens sentences for drug and theft crimes, also passed. But in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, it’s winning by a larger margin than the rest of the state.

The presidential results reflect “a strong conservative presence here in San Bernardino County,” said Kristin Washington, the San Bernardino County Democratic Party chair.

“So it’s not really so surprising,” Washington said. “We’ve been very fortunate to win the presidential elections. But those wins have never matched the other races (like) countywide races, supervisorial races (and) city council.”

She added: “It’s disappointing that this year, it looks as if the Republicans will win the presidential (race) for the county. But again, it’s in line with … what we’ve seen in other races.”

Nationally, Trump improved his numbers across a range of demographic groups.

But his success with Latino and working-class voters might help explain what’s happening in the Inland Empire.

Latinos account for 40% of California’s population, but more than half the residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, census data shows. While 37.5% of all Californians have a bachelor’s degree or higher, that percentage drops to 23.6% in San Bernardino County and 26.5% in Riverside County.

The Latino shift to Trump is “undeniably” a reason for why he’s winning the Inland Empire, Mike Madrid, a Latino GOP political consultant and expert on Latino voting behavior, said via email. “But it’s also part of the broader shift of virtually every demographic group except college-educated White women.”

Madrid added: “There appears to be an emergent multi-ethnic working class voter group in the country and that would be most visible in the Inland Empire of California.”

That group, Madrid said, “is up for grabs. But it’s been moving towards the GOP since 2012.”

Going into the election, Democratic leaders feared Trump would gain more votes from people of color. Those fears appear to be realized in how 34-year-old Corona resident Preston Lewis of voted.

“I voted for Donald Trump, and I’m Black myself,” said Lewis, a bank teller. “I just don’t think Kamala had my best interests in mind, so I didn’t vote for her. This election almost gave the impression that simply because Kamala shares the same skin tone, Black people were absolutely expected to vote for her. And that’s just not true.”

The election results don’t surprise Alexandria Padilla, a 22-year-old second-year student at Norco College who said voted for Harris “because I wanted the first female president.”

“In the months before this election, I would see huge red and blue Make America Great Again flags flying from the back of student trucks parked here,” Padilla said. “To those in their early 20s, voting for Trump almost seemed like a bandwagon.”

Nicoatl Escobar, a 19-year-old self-described conservative from Corona who’s in his second year at Norco College, voted for Trump.

“I think young men voted for (Trump) because he seems more interested in things that young men are interested in,” Escobar said.

“Conservatives like myself are more concerned about individual liberties … like being able to own a gun and being able to go out and do things on your own,” he added. “Sure, you can do that under the Biden-Harris administration. But under the Trump administration, I feel like it’s more realistic.”

Another Trump vote came from 19-year-old Imari McGhee of Corona, who said she didn’t think Trump or Harris “were worthy enough to run for office.”

“I voted for Trump but I didn’t really want to vote for anybody this year,” said McGhee, a second-year Norco college student. “In my opinion, Kamala didn’t know who she was.”

“She was making the world feel like she’s a part of their culture but in all reality I feel like she doesn’t know who she is. I feel like there was a hidden agenda with Kamala. Of course Trump has his own hidden agendas, but for me it was, like, vote for a devil that you know, or vote for a devil that you don’t know.”

Voter turnout won’t be known until all ballots are counted.

So far, Riverside County turnout mirrors the state average while San Bernardino County turnout is below that benchmark.