WASHINGTON — Former US Vice President Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in Georgia, a stunning turn of events in a once reliably Republican state that Trump must win in order to clinch reelection.

Biden jumped ahead of Trump a little more than 1,000 votes early Friday. The former vice president's surprising strength in Georgia stemmed from huge turnout from Black voters in Fulton County and other

suburbs around Atlanta, fatigue with Trump in Georgia's fast-growing suburbs — which have become increasingly young and diverse in recent years — and assiduous work over more than a decade to boost Democratic registration in the state.

No Democratic presidential nominee has won the state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton narrowly defeated former President George H.W. Bush in that state in part because he and Bush were in a three-way race that included Ross Perot, an independent candidate for the presidency.

The race was tightening dramatically Thursday night not only in Georgia but also in Pennsylvania, another state the President cannot afford to lose if he is to keep alive his hopes of a second term.

The momentum of the race has shifted in Biden's favor — putting him on the doorstep of the critical threshold of 270 electoral votes needed to become president — as he has racked up huge margins among mail-in ballots favored by Democratic voters. As the drama unfolded across the country, the President's allies launched legal challenges and floated conspiracy theories while Trump tweeted "Stop the Count!"

Tight races are also going into overtime in two other states that could influence the destiny of the race, Nevada, and Arizona.

Biden so far has 253 electoral votes and the President has 213, according to CNN projections.

Pennsylvania, the state that could take Biden over the 270-vote threshold, could complete most of its outstanding counts on Thursday or Friday, officials there said. The former vice president is only behind Trump by a little more than 26,000 votes in the Keystone State after having trailed at one point by more than half a million ballots in the hours after polls closed. Tens of thousands of votes — most of them from strongly Democratic areas, including around Philadelphia — remain to be counted.

Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Georgia and Pennsylvania, so his chances of securing reelection will hinge on developments in the two states in the coming hours.

The story was reversed in Arizona, where several tranches of votes from Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, narrowed Biden's lead to just under 68,000 votes, with Trump's team insisting the President will eventually prevail and keep his hopes of a path to 270 alive.

There is also a close contest in Nevada, where Biden's lead increased to nearly 12,000 votes by midday Thursday. Democrats had the state down as a likely win but it is closer than expected. The final result will come down again to mail-in votes, which could favor Biden since thousands are outstanding in Clark County, located around Las Vegas and usually Democratic territory.

If Biden holds leads in Arizona and Nevada, he will get to 270 electoral votes and become the next President, regardless of what happens in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

But on Thursday night, Trump effectively sent a signal that he has no intention of leaving power without a fight if he ends up losing the election.

The US president's speech from the White House briefing room could end up being one of the most dangerous presidential statements in American history. In it, Trump claimed that votes that were cast before and during the election, but counted after Election Day, are illegal votes.

Trump claims that his leads on election night shrunk because Democratic officials keep finding ballots, when in fact the counts have narrowed because election officials in many states counted the vote-by-mail ballots, which favored Democrats, after the Election Day votes, which tended to favor Republicans. — Courtesy CNN