Harris Tried to Win Over Republicans. Democratic Support Collapsed Instead
www.rollingstone.com
Kamala Harris did not pull Republicans from Trump, and the percentage of voters identifying as Democrat declined, according to exit polls.

Harris only received five percent of Republican votes — less than the six percent Joe Biden won in 2020 when he beat Trump, as well as the seven percent won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she lost to him. While Harris won independents and moderates, she did so by smaller margins than Biden did in 2020.

Meanwhile, Harris lost households earning under $100,000, while Democratic turnout collapsed. Votes are still being counted, but Harris is on pace to underperform Biden’s 2020 totals by millions of votes.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    562·
    12 hours ago

    Yes. When you abandon the left, they don’t vote for you. This is what Clinton did too

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      262·
      11 hours ago

      They have clearly internalized the pervasive trope that leftists will vote for them, because they have no other choice, so the only thing that matters to convince is the right. Looks like they calculated wrong.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
        171·
        10 hours ago

        Obama got people excited about healthcare reform. Biden got people excited about student debt relief. Clinton tried to get people excited about a female president and Harris centered her campaign around running against Trump.

        Social programs get people excited.

        • masinko@lemmy.world
          6·
          8 hours ago

          Student debt was not a campaign platform he ran on, it was something he did during his presidency.

          He did run on Green New Deal and the original proposal that later became the $2 trillion Infrastructure investment/bill/plan.

          But to your point, yes he ran on platforms that people got excited. Both of those platforms were new economic opportunities for people in a time when people when much of the labor class was jobless from COVID.

        • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
          71·
          10 hours ago

          Biden got people excited about student debt relief.

          This is not why Biden got elected. Trump so badly mishandled Covid that everyone left of center demanded change.

          • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            41·
            8 hours ago

            The failure to realize Covid is the only reason Biden won cost the Democrats. In the swing states 2024 Trump beats 2020 Biden by vote count.

          • pjwestin@lemmy.world
            2·
            8 hours ago

            I don’t think you can point to one specific thing that got Biden elected. Covid mismanagement was a huge part of it, but student debt relief and other progressive proposals that Bernie pushed the campaign into played a big part as well. Even with Covid, I think there’s a good chance that Biden would have lost if he’d run the same kind of centrist campaign that Harris and Clinton ran.