OPINION:
When Vice President Kamala Harris got thumped in the presidential election about a week ago, the liberal media were shocked.
After the drubbing, the legacy media — which have become virtual cheerleaders for the Democratic candidate — turned introspective, searching for signs they missed.
They missed everything. The results of the election were no surprise to millions of Americans, who bet some $300 million on the result, with nearly two-thirds backing former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee. But the media never saw it — and even in their postmortem, they got a lot of things wrong.
Here are the top 10 reasons Ms. Harris lost the 2024 presidential election:
10. The Biden connection
Ms. Harris just couldn’t distance herself from the very unpopular President Biden. Voters — a record number of whom voted for him in 2020 — had soured on his handling of nearly everything. What’s more, in one of the biggest disasters of her campaign, when asked on “The View” what she would have differently from her boss in the last nearly four years, she said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” That wasn’t what voters wanted to hear.
9. The Trump trap
Attempting to paint Mr. Trump as extreme — or, in the words of many liberals, a new Hitler — fell flat because voters were too busy painting him as an economic Picasso. He had been president for four years and didn’t do any of the heinous things Democrats said he would do if reelected. Voters were too smart to have the wool pulled over their eyes.
8. The economy, stupid
With the economy being the top concern, voters saw Mr. Trump as the better candidate to help struggling Americans. While the economy has stabilized a bit, many Americans are still reeling from soaring prices that occurred on Mr. Biden’s watch. One preelection poll found the economy was most important for two-thirds of voters.
7. Turnout disaster
In 2016, Mr. Trump got 62.9 million votes while Hillary Clinton got 65.8 million votes; 137.1 million Americans voted. In 2020, Mr. Trump got 74.2 million votes while Mr. Biden got 81.2 million votes; 158.6 million Americans cast ballots. But everything changed in 2024: Mr. Trump got 75.4 million votes to 72.3 million votes for Ms. Harris; total votes, 150.5 million. There’s no other way to slice it: Millions of Democrats stayed home.
6. Immigration conflagration
Immigration issues under Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris made Mr. Trump look like a border hero. There were endless reports of the soaring number of foreigners crossing the border illegally, aliens charged with committing violent crimes and cities spending millions of dollars to take care of them. As border czar, Ms. Harris visited the southern border just once. It was clear that solving the crisis was not a priority for her.
5. Untested and untried
One old-time member of the club famously described the vice presidency as “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” While it has been a launchpad to the presidency in the past, vice presidents are often out of the spotlight, sent to the funerals of foreign leaders. What’s more, Ms. Harris was already deeply unpopular even in her subordinate role — one 2021 poll put her favorability rating at just 28%.
4. Women just said no.
Ms. Harris’ strategy was to focus on women and abortion, almost going so far as to claim women would be forced into back alleys if Mr. Trump became president again. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump zeroed in on men — particularly young ones — with precision, making big gains among Generation Z. Exit polls showed Ms. Harris got the votes of 54% of women, down from 57% for Mr. Biden.
3. Courting the wrong crowd
Ms. Harris aimed to woo dissatisfied Republicans, but they were more committed to their couches than crossing the party line. She trotted out GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney on the trail, which no doubt miffed the hard-core left. It didn’t help that Dick Cheney, a former vice president, also backed the Democrat.
2. Middle East missteps
With Mr. Biden unable to stop the Israel-Hamas war, Ms. Harris found herself unpopular among Arab and younger voters, many of whom back claims that Israel is committing genocide. One exit poll showed 66% of Jews voted for Ms. Harris, while 32% voted for Mr. Trump. Ms. Harris tried to walk a political tightrope: supporting a longtime ally in Israel while courting Americans who back Palestinians. But she didn’t pull it off.
1. Dodging the media
In her 107 days at the top of the Democratic ticket, Ms. Harris didn’t hold a single news conference. She and her team decided to sit down almost exclusively with friendly media, dodging the melee of an hourlong presser with professional journalists. While Americans may not care that much that she didn’t face an adversarial press, they knew her well enough not to vote for her.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on X @josephcurl.
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