After a shocking night for the Democrats, in a presidential race that had seemed too close to call, we look at what is next for the party after their loss in the US election.
This loss could have far reaching implications for the Democrats as they start to conduct a post-mortem on their campaign to see what went wrong during this election.
The Democrats must ask themselves: after telling the country Donald Trump posed a grave danger to democracy did not prove enough, with his popular vote count ultimately increasing, what went wrong?
Track record
As a candidate for the incumbent party, it was always going to be difficult for Kamala Harris. As someone who has a significant role in the government, she had a very recent track record to defend.
The government’s failure to put a stop to conflicts in Ukraine and the war on Gaza may have left voters wanting an America-first approach. This is something which Trump promised to provide by putting a stop to the wars.
The government’s handling of the war also disillusioned voters who condemned the Biden administration and their funding of the war – as Green Party nominee Jill Stein told Newsweek, Harris could not win after losing the support of Muslims and Arab Americans in key states.
NBC projected Harris to have lost to Trump in Dearborn, Michigan, which includes the largest concentration of Arab Americans.
Exit polls suggest that the economy and migration were key issues for voters this election which proved to be sticking points for the Trump campaign. Despite Harris pushing the issue of abortion, this only seemed to have made a real impression amongst women and was not enough for the current Vice President.
‘Sleepy Joe’
The role of the current President, Joe Biden, must be a key part of their analysis of this defeat.
Questions will be asked if the President quit the race too late – if the damage to the party’s reputation had already been done by letting him represent the party at any time during the race.
Calls for Biden to pull out of the race intensified in June after a terrible performance against Trump in the first presidential debate of the campaign, but he did not step down until July.
The image of Kamala Harris as Biden’s VP, both with the legacy of the government she serves in, as well criticism that she did not call for the President to step down sooner, have haunted her throughout the campaign.
Biden’s comments on the campaign also tainted the Democrats’ changes, landing himself in hot water after seemingly implying Trump supporters were “garbage”, rattling Trump supporters.
Women in power
The Democrats’ bid to elect the first female president has failed once again – a dream that first died with Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she also got defeated by Trump.
This result is even more shocking in an election where many felt issues of abortion and women’s rights were key issues on the ballot.
This may leave the party wondering if the US is ready for a female president and could possibly result in the party’s reluctance to put forward a female nominee for some time now.
The campaign
Many thought Harris’ campaign was generally well run – focusing on issues which she thought were important, pointing out the flaws of her opponent and fairly clean campaign.
Could there be criticism that Harris focused too much on demographics she would already win – young people, who are typically left-leaning, were a big focus of her campaign messaging.
Harris made time for interviews on podcasts like Call Her Daddy, skits on SNL and playing into her Brat identity – but was this a mistake?
The VP only had three months to run her campaign, but it seems that key voter groups let her down, so it has to be asked if Harris targeted the right voter demographic and did enough to mobilise them.
According to the BBC’s exit polls, only 46% of 18–29-year-olds voted for Harris this time compared to 61% for Joe Biden in 2020.
While Harris still won among younger voters, the margins between the two were slim across all voter groups – with the exception proving black voters overwhelmingly in favour of Harris.
Now all is said and done the party must reflect on these results and analyse what went wrong to rebuild.
Featured image credit: Marc Nozell via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
