By Blake Hollingsworth | Reporter
Early Nov. 6, Donald Trump was declared president-elect after a dominant victory, capturing all seven swing states compared to only winning N.C. in 2020. While many Kamala Harris supporters may blame her loss on America being a racist or sexist nation, the true reason Harris lost the election was her inability to appeal to the average voter or separate herself from the failures of the Biden administration.
MSNBC journalist Christian Schneider published an opinion piece the morning after the election entitled, “Trump has already remade America in his own image,” in which he claimed that Trump “actually won the race years ago.” The article argues that America is now a “far coarser, unkind country” due to Trump’s rhetoric since emerging onto the political landscape nearly a decade ago.
However, I believe it is ignorant to generalize the rationale of over 73 million Americans’ decision to vote for Trump. Even though Harris was handicapped by entering the race in late July, she certainly could have made better use of her campaign. Harris spent much of her time discussing reproductive rights and social issues while staying relatively quiet about primary concerns brought on by the Biden administration, such as illegal immigration and insanely high costs of living.
“People didn’t connect with her,” an anonymous source close to the Harris campaign said. “They [Harris’ campaign staff] misjudged what people cared about because cable news and Twitter [X] are not real life.”
While abortion and inequality are significant issues, lower-middle class citizens are more concerned about putting food on the table, which has been difficult under Biden-Harris. Despite inflation’s recent sharp dip, everyday costs have remained high. A recent Reuters poll said 68% of swing state voters said the cost of living was “on the wrong track” and 61% said the same about the economy.
“Consumers have absolutely noticed that inflation has slowed down, but they remain very, very frustrated by the persistence of high prices,” Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan, told HuffPost.
Despite these concerns, Harris failed to deliver a comprehensive economic plan. As a result, of the 32% of voters who said the economy was their primary concern in exit polls done by CNN, a whopping 80% of them voted for Trump.
Perhaps Harris’ biggest liability was her record on immigration. After being appointed the “border czar” by President Biden, approximately 8 million migrant encounters occurred from 2021-2023, an annual rate almost four times higher than under the Trump administration’s final three years. Meanwhile, Trump has continually emphasized his intense plans to crack down on illegal immigration. Whether you find his policies moral or not, Trump capitalized on Harris’ failure to control the border.
Harris’ tone-deaf campaign, which included ads featuring A-list celebrities like George Clooney, Will Ferrell and Julia Roberts, led to a sweeping red wave. Early results showed that over 90% of counties that finished counting early shifted closer to the Republican party than the 2020 election. Maybe Harris should have spent more time focused on winning battleground states and middle-class Americans instead of spreading liberal ideology that only resonated with a small percentage of Americans.
