The 2024 Election fiery campaigning season ended with Trump’s victory, coming back to Washington to serve as the 47th president of the United States. Kamala Harris lost the election with 226 electoral votes and about eight million votes less than President Biden had in 2020.
After the election results, many wondered which factors led to Harris’s defeat. At many times during this election, it seems Kamala had the upper hand, with many valid sources polling Kamala higher (or within a margin of error) more often than Trump. For example, PBS/NPR/Marist conducted a final poll through October 31st to November 2nd which showed a four point lead over Trump from Kamala.
There are several reasons as to why the Kamala campaign failed to succeed in the election . Primarily, her loss could be attributed to her ideology. Many tended to view her campaign as being more woke and far left than it actually was. I believe this perspective gets exaggerated by the media, which heavily influences people. An example of this is the thousands of different videos on social media apps such as instagram and tiktok partially mocking her “intentional” accents as a way to attract different minority voters. While I believe many of these videos are funny, they only spread a false narrative of Kamala Harris.
Another reason, to put it bluntly, many people felt irritated by Kamala’s demeanor. One of Trump’s best powers is how he displays himself to others. He comes across with no filter on his thoughts whereas Kamala is very guarded and does not always give clear answers. During Trump’s political campaigns he has built up an almost cult following with his supporters, where most don’t really vote for the actual policies, but rather vote for the face of their party.
Another error many people think Kamala made that may have hurt her overall election results, has to do with the running mate she chose, Tim Walz. Harris’s main objective when choosing her running mate was to find someone that was not a mirror image of her, but one who has more conservative values, attracting people from the swing states who remain undecided. He was a coach, a gun owner, as well as serving on the army national guard for 24 years. While this made sense, as during the time male caucasian votes were decreasing for Kamala, there were many reasons people may have considered Tim Walz not the best candidate. For one, many accused Tim Walz as a liar regarding his experience being in Tiananmen Square during the June 4 massacre in 1989. Regardless of Walz ‘past, the main controversy had to do with not choosing Pensylvanian Governor Ben Shapiro. Many believe Kamala wanted to keep the votes of many who were pro-Palstanian, including many Arabs in Michigan, as Shapiro is Jewish and they feared an pro-palstanian backlash. This may have been a mistake as the election results did not seem like this decision had a real effect on the pro-Palestine minority there to be in her favor. Had she picked Shapiro, she could have boosted her chances in Pennsylvania, Shapiro’s home and key swing state.
