(image credit: Openclipart)
Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump was bigger than Hillary Clinton’s. And unlike the inept Clinton campaign of 2016, Harris made no big blunders.
After all we learned from Trump’s first term and from a 2024 Trump campaign filled with narcissistic, deranged bullying, the American people knew exactly what they were getting. But still a popular majority likely voted for Trump.
One answer has to do with race and gender. Too many Americans, especially white men, were still not willing to vote for a woman, even less a Black woman. The anticipated wave of white women’s support for Harris did not materialize at levels sufficient to offset the massive male gender gap in Trump’s favor.
Even the issue of reproductive rights, a sheer gift from the Republican right to the Harris campaign, was not decisive. Late-deciding independents swung to Trump, not to Harris. Despite the widely publicized “island of garbage” quote, Harris actually did worse among Hispanic voters than Biden did.
In Trump’s three elections, the one Democrat who was able to beat him, just barely, was a white male named Joe Biden. That speaks volumes.
But there was more to Trump’s win than race and gender. The second answer is that Harris ran a muddled campaign. When voter after uncommitted voter tells interviewers that they don’t know what Harris stands for, something is wrong. Yes, Harris had only three months to make clear who she was and what her presidency would be about. But that is plenty of time for a candidate with a clear strategy and a clear message.
Imagine voters telling interviewers that they weren’t sure what Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders stood for.