On November 6th, 2024, the Vice President and Democratic party nominee Kamala Harris lost the national election to her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump. While a predicted “tight” race, the former President won in a landslide, acquiring all seven swing states’s electoral votes and a total of 312 relative to Harris’s 226.Â
Since the Vice President’s concession to the Republican nominee, many analysts, party members, correspondents and voters have taken to the internet to assess the candidate’s campaign in search of a learning opportunity or a blaming factor. Primarily, a consensus has been reached on one idea: Kamala Harris failed at captivating minority and undecided voices.
According to USA Today, Harris’s campaign placed an overwhelming emphasis on attaining independent voters by placing the blame of America’s recent divisionist pattern on Donald Trump, a message that did not translate and therefore lost the Vice President many necessary, moderate ballots. Moreover, while traditionally considered part of the Democratic base, Black, young and Latino citizens did not vote accordingly. While Donald Trump did not necessarily win the minority vote, Harris underperformed in comparison to President Joe Biden’s turnout, who obtained a more significant share of Latino and Black votes.
Nonetheless, a failure to obtain vital votes was not the left’s only mistake: The party’s 2024 campaign for the presidency highlighted the wrong plans and notions. As Vogue’s political correspondent Jack Schlossberg described, the economy is at the forefront of any election and the primary point that the Democrats failed to promote. According to the political advocate, Harris’ message should have been tweaked to promote the economic success delivered by Joe Biden increasingly, given that the electorate largely voted for Donald Trump in retrospect to the economy during his first presidency.Â
Another mishap on the Vice President’s part was the campaign’s shift to exclusively attacking Donald Trump’s character and platform, as reported by USA Today. By surrounding her message with the idea that the former President is a “fascist” who stands to ruin America’s democracy, Harris merely diverted audiences away from her platform, thus creating a disconnect between potential voters and the left’s goals. As stated by Politico, the predominant perspective view is that Democrats must fortify their standing with the working middle class, a platform largely lost to Donald Trump this year. Specifically, thinkers such as Faiz Shakir, an advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, contend that the left must acquire candidates with personal middle-class roots who will appeal to the struggle of living pay-check to pay-check and thus will capture the attention and dedication of the largest economic sector in America, allowing Democrats to find stability and a shot at success once more.