On the morning of Nov. 7, Arizona and Nevada were finally called by Decision Desk HQ for Donald Trump. This finalized the now President-Elect’s electoral sweep with all seven swing states, easily catapulting to the White House in the space of eight hours. On the other hand, Vice President Kamala Harris struggled, trailing Trump the entire election night in both electoral and popular votes. Once the state of Pennsylvania was called for Trump by Fox News, it was over for the campaign of “joy.”
This has come to quite a shock to 48 percent of the country. Major polling outlets were giving Harris a +5 nationally and with a slight edge in her favor for the electoral vote. A poll released a week before the election even claimed she was up by 4 points in Iowa. This all was looking good for the VP until Trump again defied the odds and easily took Iowa by over 10 points, along with the presidency.
Why did this happen? We’ve been told constantly that Trump is a convicted felon, a rapist, a conman, a crook and a moron. We’ve been shown glowing and positive coverage of Harris since she jumped in the race (and how her initially underwater approval rating as VP magically shot up in July). We’ve been shown surveys claiming that America trusts Harris more on issues such as the economy, polls that Harris leads Trump nationally, that Harris had a polling foothold in all seven swing states, and so forth. And yet after all this, the election turned into a landslide for Donald Trump and a bloodbath for Kamala Harris, with even further-reaching consequences with both House and Senate leaning GOP (as of this writing, the House has yet to be called).
In the end, it comes down to the fact that the Democratic Party underestimated the average American voter. Convinced that all of America still took the mainstream media as gospel, they hammered down the anti-Trump rhetoric. They shamed voters for possibly supporting him. They called Trump voters Nazis, fascists, homophobes, transphobes, bigots, racist, sexist and garbage for the mere crime of having a different opinion. They propped up Kamala Harris as a savior candidate, here to right the economic and domestic wrongs that have plagued the country since 2021 (many of which could’ve been solved by Harris herself as VP without having to run for president). While spewing negatives and insults at the Republican Party, they failed to incentivize the average voter on anything except abortion (which neither candidate can legally authorize or deauthorize as President).
American people are patient. They can put up with a lot. But after eight years of being attacked, shamed, maligned and shunned for their political views, the Right and the Center had enough in this election. They showed the Democratic Party that they care about solving the real issues - the economy, immigration, foreign wars, safety and health. And most importantly, they showed the Democratic Party that they can no longer be swayed by the mainstream media. Clearly, running on abortion and DEI policies are not appealing to the majority of voters.
Now the Democratic Party are standing at a crossroads. Will they continue on their self-destructive far-left agenda that has proven this election cycle to fail with voters? Or will they take the advice of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and re-focus on the working class unions and blue-collars workers? If Kamala Harris really believes that the middle class is the backbone of America, the Democratic Party better gear up and be ready to earn back the middle class’s trust. Because until that happens, winning the election in the coming years is going to be impossible.
James Cowart