Harris had outspent Trump to the tune of $1.4 billion, but widely identified herself as the underdog, and with the increasing attention given to him, this was smart politicking, especially as well as realism since many polls identified the two as neck and neck, in some instances 50/50 and in others, a notch, or two, above each other.
She definitely ran a better, stronger, and faster campaign than her first run for the presidency in 2020, where management lacked strength and the capacity to prepare her for facts and figures. But, this time, her efforts were not merely photogenic, but substantial as she managed the landscape of interviews and statements, with a staff that was sharper in their handling, than many other modern presidential campaigns.
In this sense, Harris definitely picked up the torch from Biden who suffering from the flu, stumbled badly in his debate with Trump, and her background as attorney general of California, and her legal training, prepared her for her debate with Trump, who seemed old, enfeebled and unprepared as she steam rolled over him with both polity and grace.
It was always a closely contested race, and many had predicted a razor thin win for Harris, who had to contend with both her gender, as well as her Indian and Jamaican ethnicity’, which she wisely did not capitalize on, having learned the lessons of the defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Election night brought more than a case of anxiety for her supporters, but championed a victory, no matter how thin, as she was lampooned, cursed, and ridiculed by Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as they blamed her for every ill, both real and imagined, for the last four years, with the exception of the common cold.
As the returns came in all were watching the seven critical swing states that could deliver her the needed 270 electoral votes, and as North Carolina, there was still optimism as Harris had not expected to lead in the Tar Heel state; but, as the evening wore on, and tired fans went to bed, they woke to the news that Trump had won three key battleground states, Wisconsin, Michigan and the highly coveted Pennsylvania.
Harris supporters holding vigil at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC, were deflated in their misery. And, while the book is yet to be written on why, opinions have rolled in from every corner: some blaming Biden for not dropping out of the race earlier, with the Democrats then holding a primary, to sexism and misogyny, to Trump being the devil known.
There has been some speculation that many said they would vote for her, but then stayed at home, either undecided, or worried about being denied the right to vote by a well-financed GOP juggernaut; and, as we saw in Georgia there was an attempt to demand hand counts, plus the electric ballot boxes, and also to other states where election officials were sued in specious claims of voter fraud.
Now that the dust has somewhat settled, we are seeing that there was an edge, not momentous, not enough for Trump to claim a mandate, but an increase in votes from the burgeoning Latino populations whose working-class roots, in many cases, focused them on kitchen table issues that dominated their budgets, such as high grocery prices, and rent, despite the fact that US presidents do not control them.
There was also a younger male Black population that felt the Trump years were kinder to their wallets, based more on perception than fact. Black voters overall voted 8 out of 10 for Harris, but this was down from 9 out of 10 in 2020 for Biden.
Significantly, it was younger Black males, 19 to 45 years old that gave Trump the edge, double the amount that he got in 2020, and roughly double the amount that he got in 2020.
Harris got a lead from Latino voters, but down from the 6 out of 10 that Biden received in 2020.
Race, always an issue in American life, and especially in politics, showed that White voters, always the majority of American voters, voted in higher numbers in those three swing states, and it was especially notable with older White voters, particularly those in rural areas, a fact which had been determined by many pollsters.
As the Associated Press reported, “white voters make up a bulk of the voting electorate in the United States, and they did not shift their support significantly at the national level compared to 2000.”
Interestingly enough they noted that White support for Harris was about the same for Biden, four out of ten voted for Harris.
Much has been made of the increased Latino vote, but it may not quite be the juggernaut that it seems
In the past, social class and race were clarion calls for the Democrats had definitely relied on working class voters decades ago, and Blacks had been a mainstay since Civil Rights struggles and victories in the 1960s.
Taking into consideration what was then and what now, an important factor was the education of the electorate, both for Trump, as well as Harris. The base for the former had always capitalized on those Whites, especially rural people without college degrees, and an early CNN poll showed that those that had college degrees, or some college, tended to vote for Harris and less for Trump, far less.
Not to be overlooked in this equation is the low level of information that fueled much of those voters, that led them to embrace the accusations by Trump, and Vance, that legal Haitian immigrants, in Ohio were abducting and eating pet dogs and cats; a claim that Vance later admitted to CNN anchor Dana Bash was false, but he deemed necessary to get media attention to the plight of American workers.
A durable myth for younger Blacks, and even some of their elders, was that Biden, and all presidents, set the prices of groceries and other durable goods; but also not knowing that Trump had given a brief and temporary tax cut for the average income Americans, but a near permanent, and much deeper cut for corporations.
As a letter writer to the New York Times noted somewhat ruefully, had they been better educated critical thinking skills would have been utilized to analyze these falsehoods, or at the very least, read the more reliable media reports that showed them to be untruthful.
Added to this was the deep well of lies, of which the pet eating was just one example from Trump, and his MAGA followers, joined by the earlier claim by QANON that John Kennedy, Jr, was still alive and would be Trump’s running mate, while some even gathered in Dealey Plaza, the sight of his father’s assassination in Dallas,waiting for him to reappear.
Even further afield was a claim that Democrats were responsible for hurricane Milton, by “seeding” the clouds to produce the devastating event, for the sole intention of preventing southerners, White Southerners, from voting for Trump.
Cultural myths accompanied these outlandish claims, and one of the most salient was that Harris was going to allow federal inmates to receive gender change surgeries at taxpayer expense; a position that she did not run on, but based on statements, she made in 2019, for legalized treatments for gender dysphoria, and that one surgery was performed after a lawsuit on behalf of the prisoner.
Redolent of the earlier bathroom wars, the issue of transgender people became fodder for ridicule and stereotyping Democrats as being out of touch with “real” Americans.
Added to this, by Trump supporters, were profane and misogynist statements leveled at Harris, including racial stereotypes, as “stupid” and “lazy” and even calling her the ‘C” word.
Much of his base laughed and applauded at these remarks, but as we noted in 2016, this was promulgated by fear-based politics, from the playbook that he used then, and with this recent campaign.
These statements often fell on the ears of some Black men, especially those with conservative and biblically held gender beliefs, coupled with sexism, and the disbelief that a woman could be president, ironic thst those beliefs translated to votes for Trump, and with the matriarchy of many Black communities, irony ruled; despite the appeals of former President Barack Obama.
There was also voter apathy, and even abandonment, from part of this group as we heard a conversation on the bus from one Black man who said, “I have never voted, and never will.”
Hearing this we thought of those violent and bloody battles that American Blacks faced for the right to vote in the 1960s, a fact that was broadcast on the BBC when its program host said just before last Tuesday, “universal suffrage did not come to America until 1965, and yes, you heard that right.”
Moving to the disinformation, a casual glance at the social media platform X gives Trump supporters plenty of ammunition to thwart Harris from vile and demeaning comments about supposed sexual behavior with Willie Brown to lewd dancing, and even a hilarious clip of Vance blaming her for the price of eggs at $4.00 per dozen while he held a two dozen carton, but a sign in the background showed a price of $2.99 a dozen, as his young son, who accompanied him, tried frantically, to point out his error.
It was a bit rich to try and portray Harris as a sexual renegade with Trump’s multiple marriages, where he was unfaithful, and frequently entered the dressing rooms of his pageant beauty queens when he thought they would be undressed; and notably his sexual encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels while his wife was pregnant with their son Baron.
Of course no one can forget his claim of grabbing women by the genitals on Access Hollywood, and that they let him because he was a celebrity. But, his supporters seem to forget all of this as they see him as a political savior to return the United States to its glory days, much as Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to restore his country to its Imperial past; and, a man he sincerely admirers along with anther authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary.
His admiration for authoritarian leaders across the world, including Hitler, according to John Kelly, his former chief of staff, and a point of criticism by Vance before he aligned himself with Trump.
A brief look back at Trump’s earlier claims during his first run for office as he untruthfully categorized Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers, it’s clear to see that the playbook of that time was still in evidence, with Vance much like comedian Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon, on the old Tonight show, providing backup, often comedic as we’ve seen.
Lies as we have seen have been part and parcel of Trump’s candidacies and as historian Ruth Ben Ghiat has noted, “The number of documented falsehoods he uttered as president increased from 5.9 a day in 2017 to an average of 22 a day in 2019, for a total of 16,241 in his first three years in office.”
We can expect more in his second non consecutive term, and If we take all of the false claims, the misbeliefs of those who voted for Trump, and his past administration together, it says less about Harris, than it does how American voters both receive and process information, no matter how truthful.
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