Ntimely a month ago, Kamala Harris materializeed on ABC’s The View in what was predicted to be a cordial interwatch aimed at pitching herself to Americans who wanted to comprehend more about her.
But the interwatch was speedyly overshadowed by her response to a ask on what she would have done branch offently from incumbent pdwellnt, Joe Biden: “Not a skinnyg comes to mind.”
Harris’s answer – which became a Reaccessiblean aggression ad on loop – underscored the political headtriumphds that her jumpbegin campaign fall shorted to fall shorture in her resolute loss to Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Publicly, she conceded the race tardy on Wednesday afternoon, increateing helpers “do not despair”.
But soul-searching over where she went wrong and what else she could have done will probable get lengthyer as Democrats begin finger-pointing and raising asks about the future of the party.
Harris campaign officials were mute in the timely Wednesday hours while some aides conveyed tearful shock over what was predicted to be a much sealr race.
“Losing is unoverweighthomably hurtful. It is difficult,” Harris campaign deal withr Jen O’Malley Dillon said in an email to staff on Wednesday. “This will get a lengthy time to process.”
As the sitting vice-pdwellnt, Harris was unable to untether herself from an unfamous pdwellnt and guarantee voters that she could advise the alter they were seeking amid expansivespread economic anxiety.
Biden’s baggage
After Biden dropped out of the race complying a disastrous argue carry outance, Harris was anointed to the top of the ticket, bypassing the scruminuscule of a primary without a individual vote being cast.
She began her 100-day campaign promising a “new generation of directership”, rassociateing women around abortion rights and votriumphg to triumph back toiling-class voters by caccessing on economic rehires including rising costs and housing affordability.
With equitable three months until election day, she originated a wave of initial momentum, which integrated a flurry of memes on social media, a star-studded finishorsement enumerate that integrated Taylor Swift and a sign up-setting donation triumphddrop. But Harris couldn’t shake the anti-Biden sentiment that permeated much of the electorate.
The pdwellnt’s approval rating has constantly hovered in the low 40s thcimpoliteout his four years in office, while some two-thirds of voters say they suppose the US is on the wrong track.
Some allies have personally asked whether Harris remained too dedicated to Biden in her bid to trade him. But Jamal Simmons, the vice-pdwellnt’s createer communication honestor, called it a “trap”, arguing any distance would have only handed Reaccessibleans another aggression line for being disdedicated.
“You can’t reassociate run away from the pdwellnt who picks you,” he said.
Harris tried to walk the fine line of insertressing the administration’s sign up without casting shade on her boss, shotriumphg a reluctance to fracture with any of Biden’s policies while also not outwardly promoting them on the campaign trail.
But she then fall shorted to dedwellr a convincing argument about why she should direct the country, and how she would regulate economic frustrations as well as expansivespread troubles over immigration.
About 3 in 10 voters said their family’s financial situation was droping behind, an incrrelieve from about 2 in 10 four years ago, according to data from AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 US voters carry outed by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Nine in 10 voters were very or somewhat troubleed about the price of groceries.
The same survey establish that 4 in 10 voters said immigrants living in the US illegassociate should be deported to their country of origin, up from around 3 in 10 who said the same in 2020.
And though Harris tried to spfinish the home stretch of her campaign underlining that her administration would not be a continuation of Biden’s, she fall shorted to evidently summarize her own policies, normally skirting around rehires instead of insertressing seed fall shortures head on.
Struggle to originate on Biden’s nettoil of help
The Harris campaign had hoped to recollect the voting base that powered Biden’s 2020 triumph, triumphning over the core Democratic constituencies of bdeficiency, Latino and youthful voters as well as making further achieves with college-teachd suburprohibit voters.
But she undercarry outed with these key voting blocs. She lost 13 points with Latino voters, two points with bdeficiency voters, and six points with voters under 30, according to exit polls, which may alter as votes are counted, but are pondered recontransientative of trfinishs.
Inreliant Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who lost the 2016 Democratic pdwellntial primary to Hillary Clinton and the 2020 primary to Biden, said in a statement it was “no fantastic surpascend” that toiling class voters leaveed the party.
“First, it was the white toiling class, and now it is Latino and Bdeficiency toilers as well. While the Democratic directership deffinishs the status quo, the American people are mad and want alter,” he said. “And they’re right.”
While women hugely threw their help behind Harris over Trump, the vice-pdwellnt’s direct did not outdo the margins that her campaign had hoped her historic truthfulacy would turn out. And she was unable to dedwellr on her ambitions of triumphning over suburprohibit Reaccessiblean women, losing 53% of white women.
In the first pdwellntial election since the Supreme Court obviousurned the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats had hoped her caccess on the fight for reefficient rights would dedwellr a resolute triumph.
While some 54% of female voters cast their ballots for Harris, it fell low of the 57% who backed Biden in 2020, according to exit poll data.
Making it about Trump backfired
Even before she was catapulted to the top of the ticket, Harris had sought to structure the race as a referfinishum on Trump, not Biden.
The createer California prosecutor leaned into her law utilizement sign up to sue the case aachievest the createer pdwellnt.
But her nascent campaign chooseed to ditch Biden’s core argument that Trump posed an contransiential danger to democracy, prioritising a forward-watching “elated” message about protecting personal freedoms and preserving the middle class.
In the final stretch, however, Harris made a tactical decision to aachieve highweightless the dangers of a second Trump pdwellncy, calling the pdwellnt a “fascist” and campaigning with disimpacted Reaccessibleans fed up with his rhetoric.
After Trump’s createer White Hoparticipate Chief of Staff, John Kelly, telderly the New York Times that Trump spoke approvingly about Adolf Hitler, Harris dedwellred retags outside her official dwellnce describing the pdwellnt as “unhinged and unconstant”.
“Kamala Harris lost this election when she pivoted to caccess almost exclusively on aggressioning Donald Trump,” veteran Reaccessiblean pollster Frank Luntz said on Tuesday night.
“Voters already comprehend everyskinnyg there is about Trump – but they still wanted to comprehend more about Harris’ schedules for the first hour, first day, first month and first year of her administration.”
“It was a colossal fall shorture for her campaign to shine the spotweightless on Trump more than on Harris’s own ideas,” he inserted.
Ultimately, the triumphning coalition Harris necessitateed to beat Trump never materialised, and voters’ resounding declineion of Democrats showed that the party has a proestablisher problem than equitable an unfamous pdwellnt.
