West Virginia Election Results: Donald Trump easily wins over Hillary Clinton

Republican candidate Donald Trump has won the state of West Virginia, according to early election results. The Associated Press called the race at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. 

The victory comes as no surprise: Trump has been leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the polls by as much as 38 percentage points.

West Virginia has historically voted Democrat, but in recent years it has turned red. The state has voted for the Republican presidential candidate since 2000, according to Ballotpedia.

Trump was bolstered in the Mountain State by his campaign promises to create jobs and conduct "extreme vetting" of people entering the United States from countries with a history of terrorism. Voters in West Virginia have been increasingly skeptical of the Obama administration and other Democrats like Clinton.

"When people talk about Trump, they talk about how they don't like the establishment or the elites," Charles Keeney, a history professor at Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, said to the New Yorker.

West Virginia has five electoral votes.