Kamala Harris failed to become the first female president in America after her Republican rival Donald Trump was projected as the winner of the 2024 election on Wednesday. Harris would have become the first woman, black woman and South Asian-American to win the presidency if things had gone as she wanted.
Harris, who has since conceded, was expected to appear at Howard University in Washington DC election night but she canceled the event after results that started trickling in showed Trump winning.
She has since called Trump to congratulate him on his win but told her supporters that the fight is far from over. “The outcome of the election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” she said in a concession speech to a crowd of students and supporters at Howard University in Washington, DC, her alma mater.
“Hear me when I say the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”
Harris’ failed presidential bid has had many wondering what might have gone wrong. Here are some of the reasons she lost:
Economy
A majority of voters did not trust Harris when it came to handling the economy. Trump was successful in convincing voters who had concerns about the economy that he was the best person to address their issues because he spoke plainly, Frank Kelly, senior political strategist at the investment firm DWS, said, according to Fortune.com.
“He sounded as if you were in a Lions Club meeting or a Knights of Columbus meeting and somebody was talking about the economy,” Kelly said. “He really spoke to the common man in his language.”
Focusing on attacking Trump
Calling Trump a “fascist”, describing him as “unhinged and unstable” and issuing warnings about him being a threat to democracy and women’s rights were campaign messaging that people were probably fed up with or saw as divisive, experts say.
“Kamala Harris lost this election when she pivoted to focus almost exclusively on attacking Donald Trump,” veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz said on Tuesday night.
“Voters already know everything there is about Trump – but they still wanted to know more about Harris’ plans for the first hour, first day, first month and first year of her administration.”
“It was a colossal failure for her campaign to shine the spotlight on Trump more than on Harris’s own ideas,” he added.
Couldn’t attract the voting base that helped Biden
Harris had hoped to win over black, Latino and young voters as well as college-educated suburban voters. These voting blocs helped Biden four years ago but that wasn’t the case for Harris this year. According to exit polls cited by BBC, Harris lost 13 points with Latino voters, two points with black voters, and six points with voters under 30.
CBS exit poll data suggests that the former California senator, who campaigned strongly for abortion rights, may have not won over women as expected. Figures show that some 54% of women voters cast their ballots for her. However, in 2020, Biden got 57% of women to vote for him.
Her choice of vice president didn’t help
Observers believe that the race would have been different had she chosen Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate instead of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Even some of her own party members criticized her decision to name Walz, who they view as further to the left than she is. They wanted a more moderate choice.
“Historically, vice presidents have little impact on a presidential candidate’s fate,” Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of The Daily Signal, told Fox News Digital. “But in the case of Tim Walz, it proved to be a disastrous decision that doomed Kamala Harris from the moment she made it. Not only was Walz ill-prepared for the national spotlight and media scrutiny, but Harris passed over several better options. Given how little Americans knew about Harris or her policy positions, they were right to question her judgment on this big decision.”
Didn’t have much time
Vice-President Harris became the Democratic Party candidate in July after President Biden stepped down from the race following pressure from within his party. Thus, she had only about four months to prepare and craft her message. Analysts say that she was forced to reverse major policy positions including her stance on illegal immigration and this ruined public confidence in her leadership.
