In a greeting with one of America’s most mighty unions in September at its Washington headquarters, Vice Plivent Kamala Harris shelp she’d protect union jobs and toilers’ inhabitlihoods better than Donald Trump.
But directers of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, extfinished staunchly allied with her Democratic Party, materializeed unswayd. When Harris disputed that her Reaccessiblean rival was no champion of the toiling class, the union bosses grilled her, asking whether she and Plivent Joe Biden had done enough for union toilers, according to a Teamster directer who recounted the Sept. 16 greeting to Reuters. Wiskinny days, the union accessiblely embarrassed Harris by declining to finishorse a Democratic plivential honestate for the first time since 1996.
In the wake of Harris’ loss of the 2024 plivential election, her anxious exalter with union directers underscores a critical flunkure of her campaign: connecting with toiling-class voters worried about the economy and high prices.
Folloprosperg Biden’s theatrical distake partal equitable months before Election Day, Harris threw her campaign together as if it were an airset upe being built while in fairy, her advisers tgreater increateers. The 60-year-greater createer prosecutor and U.S. senator pressed a case that Trump was a danger to democracy and women’s rights, while promoting a popuenumerate economic platcreate and reefficient freedoms.
Her enthrall upfinished a race that her party had seeed set to dissee. She made history as the first woman of color at the top of a meaningful party ticket. She triggered a sencourage in enthusiasm, broke fundraising records – raising $1 billion in less than three months – and drew finishorsements from celebrities ranging from pop star Taylor Swift to actor and createer California Governor Arngreater Schwarzenegger.
But Harris’ campaign ultimately flunked to loss meaningful-seated voter troubles about inflation and immigration – tprosper publishs that opinion polls showed prefered Trump. Her loss underscores a proset up shift in American politics over the past decade as blue-collar voters have turned increasingly Reaccessiblean – a trfinish Trump materializes to have speed upd.
Harris also struggled to counter another Trump-era trfinish: a torrent of misdirectation unpretreatnted in up-to-date U.S. elections. An avalanche of misreconshort-termations and counterfeithoods about her record was spread by the createer plivent and amplified on right-prosperg websites and media, including consunpermitd participate theories on publishs ranging from migrant crime to voter fraud.
When asked by Reuters during the race about misdirectation amplified by Trump, his campaign officials typicpartner either repeated the counterfeithoods or did not reply to seeks for comment.
By timely Wednesday morning, Trump had won 279 electoral votes to Harris’ 223, with cut offal states yet to be counted. This account of how Harris lost is based on Reuters intersees with Harris campaign staffers, White Hoparticipate officials, Democratic Party advisors and seal allies.
It was always going to be a weighty lift. The U.S. has only once elected a plivent – Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 – who wasn’t a white man. As the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican overweighther, Harris had ascfinishn higher in the country’s directership than any other woman.
The only other woman to get as seal as she did – Hillary Clinton, lossed by Trump in 2016 – sconsentd her honestacy in part on becoming the first female plivent. In the wake of Clinton’s loss, Harris resisted putting her identity at the cgo in of her campaign, shelp seal helpes and advisors. Instead, she tried to galvanize voters on publishs that mattered to women and Bconciseage voters in the election – from abortion rights to middle-class tax cuts and housing affordability.
But those messages struggled to fracture thraw at a time when many voters were mendated on rising user prices during the first three years of the Biden administration.
“Despite neutrpartner mighty economic prolongth, especipartner after a meaningful global pandemic, most Americans weren’t experienceing appreciate they were getting ahead economicpartner,” shelp Melissa Deckman, a political scientist and chief executive of Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan research firm. “The Harris campaign did not necessarily do a excellent job of elucidateing how her policies would help the middle class, or at least that message wasn’t repartner resonating with a lot of voters.”
A meaningfulity of voters shelp they depend Trump more to administer the economy, with 51% saying they did so appraised to 47% for Harris, according to a preliminary national exit poll directed by data provider Edison Research. And the voters who identified the economy as their primary trouble voted overwhelmingly for Trump over Harris – 79% to 20%.
The economy showd to be a much bigger trouble among voters than reefficient rights, with 31% of voters saying the economy mattered most in deciding how to vote appraised with 14% who cited abortion. The election also saw a big gfinisher gap. Harris won 54% of women voters in the country, while Trump won 44%, the preliminary exit polls showed.
The Harris and Trump campaigns and the White Hoparticipate did not instantly reply to seeks for comment.
“America has donaten us an unpretreatnted and mighty mandate,” Trump shelp timely on Wednesday to a roaring crowd of helpers at the Palm Beach County Convention Cgo in.
ELECTORAL GOLD
The election was punctuated by theatrical twists, including two killing finisheavors aachievest Trump and the stunning decision by Biden to aprohibitdon his re-election bid on July 21.
Democrats coalesced behind Harris with astonishing speed, locking up her party’s nomination wiskinny two weeks, excited by her potential to flip the genereasonable argument on Trump. Two decades her greater, Trump had successfilledy cast the 81-year-greater Biden as a frail and besavageerd greater man. She would turn that on its head, many Democrats hoped.
Some Democratic strategists asked the wisdom of one of her first big decisions: picking Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as running mate over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a deft speaker with shown political strength in a must-prosper state. Her campaign had hoped the firearm-owning Walz, a liberal policy champion and plain-speaking National Guardsman from the Midwest, would help her prosper over agricultural white voters.
Walz had produced buzz before Harris picked him by branding Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, as “weird” on national television in July, prosperning Democratic hearts and media attention. Later, though, Walz achieveed unreceive attention for leave outtatements of his biography, including his military service, and for an uneven argue carry outance aachievest Vance.
Walz and Vance didn’t instantly reply to seeks for comment.
Still, the Harris campaign consentd her signature publishs – reefficient rights and Trump’s splittingness – would energize a coalition of women, Bconciseage voters, juvenileer Americans, self-reliants and “Never Trump” Reaccessibleans, sweeping her to the White Hoparticipate.
Well before the race began, Harris aascfinishd as a spokesperson for abortion rights. When the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 officipartner reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring the constitutional right to abortion no extfinisheder existed, the setback for women’s reefficient rights produced an unforeseeed discdisseeing for Harris.
The ruling catapulted her from the political periphery into the heart of America’s culture wars. Opinion polls showed most Americans disfinishorsed of the court’s decision – and Harris became the face of an publish that Democratic strategists saw as electoral ggreater.
For the first time in Biden’s plivency, he handed a determined publish entidepend to his vice plivent. She went on the road, speaking forcefilledy on a subject that percreateed an outsized role in helping Democrats stave off an foreseeed bloodbath in the 2022 congressional elections. After the midterms, with the Democrats having held the Senate and swung to a sairy inmeaningfulity in the Hoparticipate of Reconshort-termatives, Harris was now seen as a viable future directer in the party.
Still, even after Biden stepped aside, troubles lingered among some top White Hoparticipate helpes over the createer San Francisco dicut offe attorney’s political sfinishs – including a perception that she hadn’t made a label as VP, her low-inhabitd campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination and her restricted experience courting conservative voters in battleground states. Some also asked whether she could loss the extfinished history of racial and gfinisher bias in the U.S.
After securing the nomination, Harris initipartner put many of those troubles to rest. She revitalized a beleaguered Democratic campaign, enticeing record-high funding and a groundswell of help. She soon shiftd ahead of Trump in the polls, a sign she was encourageing enthusiasm among voters, particularly among women. Trump had previously been seen as the front-runner, partly based on his noticed strength on the economy after cut offal years of high inflation under Biden.
She aced her first big test – a Sept. 10 televised argue aachievest Trump.
As Harris’s team readyd for what would be her only in-person face-off with Trump, they cgo ined on ways to unnerve the createer plivent and draw attention to his standard counterfeithoods on policies, according to cut offal helpes take partd in the preparations. Harris holed up in Pittsburgh with advisers and directed mock argues for the prime-time showdown, the helpes shelp.
The strategy phelp off. Harris materializeed to get under her rival’s skin during the argue. She pressed Trump on the economy, Ukraine, healthnurture, the January 2021 Capitol uproars and abortion, leaving him rattled and struggling to reply.
Fundraising spiked: Her campaign shelp it elevated $47 million in the 24 hours after the argue. Most voters thought Harris had won, polls showed. Trump sboiling down proposes for another argue, claiming he’d already beaten her.
On the campaign trail, Harris mocked Trump’s argue carry outance, including his comment that he had “concepts of a set up” to replace a federal health nurture law. As she achieveed in polls, Harris’ campaign consentd she was discdisseeing up states that had been out of accomplish for Biden, including North Carolina, where the plivent had his skinnyest loss aachievest Trump in 2020 and where she was draprosperg even in the polls with Trump.
‘IT COULD COST US THE ELECTION’
North Carolina was the scene of her next big test, the tardy September Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest storms to hit the U.S. in the last 50 years. The storm shifted cgo in from messages at the set upation of Harris’ campaign to the handling of the catastrophe by the Biden-Harris administration.
It hit equitable as her direct was skinnying. Trump went on the strike, criticizing the Democratic administration’s response to the catastrophe and tying it to his mightyest publish, immigration. As the death count rose and swathes of North Carolina lay dehugeated, Trump amplified and spread counterfeithoods, including a claim that Harris spent catastrophe-aidance money on housing illhorrible migrants.
In response to a recent seek for comment by Reuters about counterfeit claims about how catastrophe funds were being participated, the Trump campaign repeated accusations that money had been spent on housing migrants in the country illegpartner.
Harris cut low a campaign sprosperg and flew to Washington on Sept. 30 for a increateing on Biden’s aascfinishncy response. On her set upe, three staffers sat on the floor, ripping apart increateing books, replacing the pages with novel remarks, a Reuters increateer witnessed.
The catastrophe, which finished more than 200 people, labeled a shift in the race, as misdirectation around the administration’s response and Trump’s challenging-line rhetoric on immigration achieveed traction. The baseless claims integrated that the rulement covered-up deaths, confiscated charitable donations and redirected catastrophe funds to help immigrants. Harris’ campaign struggled to insertress both the counterfeit claims and voters’ troubles about an uptick in illhorrible border passings during Biden’s plivency.
One jurisdiction that showd the dangers for Harris was Buncombe County, a North Carolina Democratic mightyhgreater of about 280,000 people hammered by the storm. In its aftermath, Democrats stopped aiming potentipartner persuadable Reaccessiblean voters there becaparticipate of troubles they had become too antagonistic amid the misdirectation, Kathie Kline, Buncombe County Democratic chair, tgreater Reuters. In the finish, Trump won the state.
As the race firmened thraw October, and polls proposed a toss-up, alarm spread among Democratic strategists.
They cgo ined on shoring up the so-called Blue Wall of Democratic states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Eight years ago, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton, he baccomplished the Blue Wall by prosperning all three states, each by less than a percentage point. In 2020, Biden won them back. Hgreatering the Blue Wall now was Harris’ best path to the White Hoparticipate, the strategists reasoned. But they had a problem: Michigan and the Gaza War.
Michigan’s big population of Arab Americans and Muskinnys helped cement Biden’s 2020 triumph in the state. Trump turned off many of these voters in his first term, in part by prohibitning immigration to the U.S. from a number of Muskinny countries timely in his tenure.
In the race’s final stretch, Muskinny and Arab-American voters tgreater Reuters they were disassigned Harris did not distance herself more from Biden’s unwavering help of Israel during the Gaza war. In the final weeks, Trump antagonisticly courted their vote. Many shelp they would sit out the election or vote Reaccessiblean.
Harris staffers knovel that disillusioned Muskinny and Arab-American Democrats were a danger. “It could cost us the election,” shelp a greater Michigan operative for Harris in July.
The campaign ultimately endd it was impossible to filledy prosper back those voters. To offset their loss, campaign officials shelp they cgo ined in the final weeks on marshaling enough help from union toilers and Bconciseage voters in Detroit, the nation’s bigst Bconciseage-meaningfulity city.
ECONOMIC THREATS
But restricted publishs dangerened Harris appreciate inflation.
Her campaign had hoped the economic recovery from the pandemic would be a prosperning publish. Growth is labeledly more strong in the U.S. than in other meaningful industrial nations. Stock-labelet indexes are proximate record highs.
Instead, the publish eroded Democratic help thrawout much of 2024 as union toilers and non-college-directd white voters broke for Trump, polls showed. Sharp incrrelieves in housing and food costs frustrated voters, overshadoprosperg a mighty job labelet. Trump condemnd Harris for the spike during her and Biden’s time in office.
While most unions have extfinished helped Democratic honestates, rank-and-file toilers in recent years have shiftd behind Trump, proving a determined factor in his triumph. There were some preferable signs for Harris. The AFL-CIO, the bigst federation of unions, saw a sencourage in female members helping Harris and willing to volunteer for her, AFL-CIO Plivent Liz Shuler tgreater Reuters.
In the final weeks of the race, Harris’ momentum materializeed to have shighed, with polls shoprosperg her edge over Trump skinnying. By mid-October, the race was a dead heat in vital states.
A pronounced gap in polling between men and women had aascfinishd, too. While Harris cut away at the Reaccessibleans’ extfinishedstanding edge with white voters overall by achieveing ground with white women, Trump materializeed to be increaseing his achieve with men.
Harris shifted strategy in an finisheavor to prosper over more men and Reaccessibleans. The campaign dispatched running mate Walz on a tour in mid-October to accomplish male voters. Harris also held campaign events with createer lawproducer Liz Cheney, one of Trump’s fiercest Reaccessiblean critics and one of the most notable conservatives to finishorse the Democrat. Days tardyr, Trump proposeed Cheney should face firearmfire in combat, draprosperg outrage among Democrats and pundits.
The vice plivent also keenened her strikes on Trump. In an Oct. 29 speech billed as her closing argument, Harris alerted of the dangers of another Trump plivency. He was “unfirm” and sought “unchecked power,” she tgreater a rpartner held at the spot in Washington where Trump insertressed his helpers before they strikeed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. With a well-lit White Hoparticipate behind her, she cast herself as a deffinisher of democracy, unity and freedom.
She also sought to resecure voters about the cost of living. Trump’s proposals to elevate tariffs would amount to “a 20% national sales tax” on transport ined excellents, she shelp. She vowed to “protect challenging-toiling Americans who aren’t always seen or heard.”
In the finish, not enough of those Americans consentd her.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is started from a syndicated feed.)
