Hurtling down his track of defying immense odds this election, Donald Trump officially became president-elect of the United States just after midnight Nov. 9, smashing national expectations – and even the most recent polling numbers – as voters eager to shake up the nation’s political establishment chose the billionaire businessman to lead the country.

An unexpected Republican nominee, Trump rode a wave of support from voters seeking major change from the nation’s status quo. In a victory that rattled financial markets worldwide, he upset Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who would have become the first woman to serve in the Oval Office.

Clinton, who was declared the winner in Colorado leading Trump by over 60,000 votes with 84 percent of precincts reporting, chose not to deliver her concession speech early Wednesday morning, breaking with presidential political tradition. “We are not going to say anything more tonight,” said her campaign chairman John Podesta, addressing supporters waiting into the early morning hours at the Javits Center in New York just before the Associated Press called the race for Trump.

“I say it is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump told his supporters gathered in a Manhattan hotel near his Trump Tower campaign headquarters.

While Clinton claimed victory in Colorado, winning the large majority of the popular vote in the state’s major metropolitan area of Denver, Trump’s campaign team came out the national winners. Four names quickly rising to the top as victors, Colorado campaign chairman Robert Blaha, Colorado Trump campaign finance chairman Larry Mizel, consultant Patrick Davis and one of the Trump campaign’s more outspoken supporters in the state’s congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO5).

Trump’s path to winning it? The tough-talking New York billionaire claimed victories in the nation’s premier battleground states, but his appeal across the industrial Midwest – Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in particular – sealed a victory that defied pre-election polls and every expectation of the political establishment.

“For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country,” he said, the stage crowded with family and his most loyal allies.

Trump addressed the nation after sweeping most of the nation’s top battlegrounds – and created some new ones.

He won Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. He also took down the Democratic Party’s “blue firewall” by scoring victories in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that haven’t supported a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 and 1984 respectively.

Trump’s win shocked political professionals and global financial markets alike. But it created pure joy inside the hotel ballroom where hundreds of Trump supporters waited for hours for his celebration speech. They hugged each other, chanted “USA!” and bellowed “God bless America” at the top of their lungs.

House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump Tuesday night to congratulate him on his “incredible victory.”

“We are eager to work hand-in-hand with the new administration to advance an agenda to improve the lives of the American people,” Ryan, who had a rocky relationship with Trump at times, said in a statement. “This has been a great night for our party, and now we must turn our focus to bringing the country together.”

While Democrat Hillary Clinton was trying to make history as the first female president, Trump made a different kind of history as one of the least politically experienced presidential candidates ever elected, what many voters saw as his main appeal according to exit polls.

A businessman and former reality TV star, he is a true political outsider in a way that marks a sharp break from past presidents.

Some were branded resume lightweights: ex-governors George W. Bush of Texas, Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Ronald Reagan of California, among them. But they had served somewhere – whether in Congress, states or in a leadership post in an administration.

Trump’s outsider status ultimately helped him politically far more than it hurt.

His political inexperience allowed him to cast himself as a change agent just as frustrated voters in both parties were hungry for change. The message was particularly effective against Clinton, a fixture in public service over the last three decades.

Ever the showman, his strategy relied almost exclusively on massive rallies to connect with voters, ignoring the grunt work that typically fuels successful campaigns.

Pre-election polls suggested he was the least popular presidential nominee in the modern era.

Yet there were signs that Republicans who previously vowed never to support Trump were willing to give him a chance moving forward.

“If Trump wins, he does deserve the benefit of the doubt because he was right on his chances and so many of us were wrong,” tweeted conservative leader Erick Erickson.

As of early Wednesday morning, Trump had secured 276 electoral votes after taking Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Earlier in the night he had locked in victories in what pundits had called must-win stakes in Florida and Ohio.

This report was compiled from The Associated Press by Colorado Statesman editorial staff. Jill Colvin and Steve Peoples reported from Washington. AP writer Julie Bykowicz in Washington also contributed to this report.