President Donald Trump: The Sequel
By Jason Collins
The moment we have all been waiting for has finally arrived, and the people of America have spoken. Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th president of the United States. After what the mainstream media constantly called a tight race, that has had most of us on the edge of our seats throughout the journey,y from tough debates, assassination attempts, bold claims, and a battle of the swing states. Turns out, it wasn’t that close.
In case you somehow missed this seismic shift in American politics, here’s what went down on election day and how Donald Trump dominated Tuesday night.
How The States Used Their Votes
If you had to glance at the election map, the thick wall of red running through the center is clear who the overall favorite is among voters. Trump won a large chunk of the election map, with all Southern states choosing him as their president for the next four years. In a historic moment, Trump broke through the blue-walled state of Pennsylvania and painted the town red with a two percent lead over Democrat candidate Kamala Harris. Michigan and Wisconsin soon followed. The Midwest blue wall safety net was obliterated. Other states that chose the Republicans were Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.
Compared to the previous elections, Trump has also snagged the victory away from previously Democrat-dominated states like Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. Harris managed to hold onto historically Democrat states along the West Coast and the East Coast. Trump’s win in key battleground state Pennsylvania was a harsh blow to the Harris campaign despite Kamala spending as much time as possible campaigning in the Keystone State. Trump secured 19 electoral votes, which is a major victory in terms of vote numbers and once Pennsylvania went to Trump, the road to victory was nearly impossible for Harris.
Not only was winning in Pennsylvania critical in deciding the winner of the presidential race, but it helped determine who would have control in the Senate. Trump’s popularity even resonated in states that Harris won. He only lost New Jersey by 4 points, by definition he made New Jersey a swing state. He lost Virginia by a handful of points. He only lost New York by 12 points and will end up with a staggering 40% of the vote in ultraliberal California.
How Did Harris Lose Blue Wall States?
As Americans woke to the news of a Trump victory, many Democrats were understandably disappointed with the results as it had been billed as a tight race between Harris and Trump. It’s not uncommon to wonder how Harris, who also frequently visited Pennsylvania, managed to lose a state that Democrats have been voting for in every election between 1992 and 2012, which Biden managed to hold onto in 2020. If you compare her performance in the debate against Trump, she appeared to be the stronger candidate, and the polls agree. After the presidential debate, her support saw a sudden upward tick as more people learned who the real Harris was and what she was about.
But was this enough? Clearly, not.
Political scientist and the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, Melissa Deckman, has some theories on why Harris didn’t do as well as the Democrats would have liked. She told Reuters,
The Harris campaign did not necessarily do a good job of explaining how her policies would help the middle class, or at least that message wasn’t resonating with a lot of voters.
Deckman believes that Harris’s unclarity about her policies wasn’t the only reason, but also her choice of vice president. When Harris first picked her vice president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, most people hadn’t heard of Walz before. Deckman believes that Walz did not help Harris win any swing states. He was supposed to appeal to men, and he didn’t. Running into gaff after gaff, Walz looked weak compared to Republican Vice President J.D. Vance during their debate and was largely sidelined after that performance.
David Schultz, a political science professor, feels that a big reason why many voters could not connect with Harris was that her campaign focused largely on abortion rights to attract female voters. Even though the abortion strategy had her winning women, as USA Today reported that more than half (54%) of Harris’s voters were women, and other exit polls showed that 91% of black women voted for Harris, abortion was not nearly the galvanizing force Democrats had hoped it would be. Many women feel the issue of abortion has been decided on the state level and were comfortable voting for abortion rights within their state while casting their presidential ballot in favor of Trump.
For Harris, relying on a strong female base was not enough. Her campaign alienated men and she saw major swings in this category for Trump, especially among Latino men. Trump gained in nearly every demographic from his performance in 2020.
The State That Sealed Trump’s Victory
The results from the state of Wisconsin sealed Trump’s victory. For decades, Wisconsin has been a blue-led state, but now, Trump has won over the state with ten electoral votes. In 2016, Trump also won the state election by appealing to working-class voters, something Hilary Clinton failed to do, and that’s what he did again.
Voters in the state were concerned about healthcare as well as abortion rights. Both candidates spent a lot of time campaigning for the state, and Harris even held a rally in Ripon, the birthplace of the Republican party.
So, how did Trump manage to beat Harris?
Both candidates addressed the issue of the opioid crisis gripping the state and the rising costs of healthcare. Harris promised to lower medication costs, cancel medical debt, and bolster the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In contrast, Trump promised to find an alternative to the ACA, which voters obviously preferred.
Despite her best efforts to fight for women’s health rights, a weakness in the Trump campaign, Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, believes this was her downfall. She explained,
When you look at the exit poll, what is the issue that was most important? It was the economy and people feeling like they couldn’t make ends meet and that inflation was having a negative impact on their lives.
Issues that the Trump campaign had been focusing on and has paid off. For all his bluster, Trump ran a policy-based campaign. Whether you agree with him or not, Trump articulated a clear view on what he will do to address the economy and immigration, the two most important issues facing Americans according to exit polls.
The Final Result
While not all of the votes are in yet, President Trump has been declared the victor with 295 electoral votes and 72,641,564 votes (50.9%). Arizona and Nevada will eventually go to Trump pushing his total well over 300. Harris came in second with 226 electoral votes and 67,957,895 votes (47.6%). Jill Stein from the Green Party and Independent Robert Kennedy (who endorsed and joined the Trump team) won no electoral votes. In one of the larger surprises of election night, Trump is also going to win the popular vote. No Republican has done that since 2004. Republicans also regained control of the Senate and held onto the House. Trump will enter office in 2025 with a decisive mandate from the American people.
Perhaps if Harris had more time to try and unhook herself from Biden’s high disapproval rate and allow voters to get to know her more, perhaps if Joe Biden had left the race a year ago a full Democratic primary would have produced a stronger candidate. Perhaps if the Democrats would not have allowed themselves to become the establishment and the Republicans to become the counterculture party of change. Perhaps things might have been different. Analysts will spend the next year asking these questions. Largely, they are missing the point.
Americans voted for an end to forever wars, an end to illegal immigration, an end to crippling grocery prices. Americans rejected men competing in women’s sports, rejected celebrity endorsements, rejected wealth disparity. Americans sent a loud message, they do not want to be defined by their racial or gender identity, they want to be known as Americans. And the majority chose to make America great. Again.
