It was Wednesday, Nov. 6, that President-elect Donald Trump won the required 270 electoral votes necessary for him to reclaim his seat in the White House. On Saturday, Nov. 9, it was projected that Trump won Arizona, meaning that he won all seven major battleground states. He won Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada. He crushed Vice President Harris in the college, defeating her with a final 312 to Harris’ 226 in electoral votes.
This is not the first time that Trump has had a sweeping victory in the electoral college. As most recall, despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, he defeated her in the electoral college. Of the predicted 12 swing states for that he seized eight to her four. In 2020, it was President Joe Biden who swept the electoral college, taking six of the seven battleground states, only dropping the ball in North Carolina. Of the seven battleground states in the 2020 election, six flipped red with North Carolina remaining red, and the others shifting blue.
Battleground states are notorious for their wayward leanings, with some states swinging red in 2016, to blue in 2020 and once again to red for the 2024 election. According to CBS, polling shows that all battleground states were tied until the end of the season, for which they swung red.
Trump winning all seven states indicates a huge shift in the political landscape in the coming days, and it also indicates that the Democratic Party has lost a lot of sway across the country. Harris underperformed Biden in every county in America, contributing to her defeat. Not only did she underperform, but she won blue spots by a lesser margin than her predecessors, indicating something in the political climate has shifted drastically. For example, Biden won N.J. by 16 points in 2020, when Harris won it by a meager five points this election.
Trump’s victory in office indicates the first presidential Republican popular vote victory since former President George W. Bush faced off against John Kerry in 2004. In the days after the surprising margin of defeat, many reporters and political scientists have picked apart both campaigns.
Some say that her coming into the race so late is what played a deciding factor, as she did not fight against others in her party during the primaries, nor was she able to make or distinguish herself from her predecessor, especially in areas such as the economy. As reflected by the 2008 election, when the economy is in the garbage, voters tend to favor the party not in power.
It has also been pointed out that Harris also lost voters in key groups that normally and mostly had leaned blue, especially in Muslim communities over the Biden Administrations vocal and stout support of Israel. Most notably, many in the Latino community voted for Trump, despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
rrodri13@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @1stForAll, X
