‘Someone who worked in all 3 branches of government is losing to a reality tv host’: Americans grieve the 2024 presidential election
Donald Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election Tuesday night brought immediate disbelief for large swaths of the country, renewing fears and setting many into a state of grief.
Trump punched his presidential ticket despite what could only be qualified as a wildly racist and unhinged campaign. But somehow, his vile messaging and calls for revenge did not move the needle—in fact, it appears his openly turgid messaging won him the presidency. The deep reluctance to elect a woman (and specifically a woman of color)—possibly the most qualified candidate ever—to its highest office likely put the spectral knell in the coffin of her candidacy from the beginning.
Exit polls, per NBC News, reveal deep demographic divides, with men backing Trump by 10 points while women—likely buoyed by abortion/women’s rights—supported Harris by the same margin. Arguably, the most informative takeaway of the election was Trump’s unprecedented 13-point gain among Latino voters compared to 2020, suggesting the historic nature of Harris’s candidacy couldn’t overcome voter priorities related to the economy and good, old-fashioned misogyny.
Remember Trump’s repeated dog-whistling, as he demeaned Harris as “low IQ” and “mentally disabled” and called her “one of the dumber people in the history of our country.”
“This loss underscores the amount of ingrained racism and white hetero-patriarchy in this nation,” said Nadia Brown, director of women’s and gender studies at Georgetown University, in an earlier interview about Harris’s challenges with misogynoir. “The sexism that Harris faced is racially tinged.”
Economic concerns dominated and charged the election, with 45% of voters reporting they were worse off financially than four years ago—the highest level of dissatisfaction in exit polling since 2008. Two-thirds rated the economy poorly despite low unemployment and strong markets. Harris could not entirely disassociate with the negativity for Biden, with ongoing inflation and little-discussed underemployment not helping matters.
Trump capitalized on this discontent, promising tariffs and protectionist policies that economists warn could actually harm the voters who supported him. The Peterson Institute projects Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports and 20% universal tariff would cost typical American households $2,600 annually.
“Trump is using tariffs as a political device to signal his strong skepticism around globalization broadly,” explained Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics. “That this policy stance is inflationary is very difficult for most voters to grasp, especially when they are being told the opposite.”
Interestingly enough, first-time voters broke decisively for Trump, 54% to 45%, marking a dramatic reversal from 2020 when new voters heavily favored Democrats. The shift suggests that whatever Harris’s extensive government experience meant—spanning roles in local, state, and federal positions—held relatively little appeal with voters. Her experience simply did not matter enough. In fact, in several states where abortion was on the ballot, it was approved by voters—even as they voted for Trump. They wanted Harris’ ideas but did not want Harris out in front.
The uncomfortable truth beneath Trump’s victory lies in America’s persistent reluctance to entrust its highest office to a woman of color, regardless of qualifications. While Harris brought decades of experience, voters instead embraced Trump’s familiar populist messaging—even as economists warned his policies would positively devastate the very constituencies that supported him.
Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists have already sounded the alarm that Trump’s agenda would “reignite” inflation. Yet his support among white voters and his dramatic gains with Latinos suggest many Americans remain willing to overlook (or simply do not understand) these economic realities, swayed by a potent combination of cultural anxiety and misplaced faith in strongman solutions. The glaring irony is that Trump’s true believers and those primarily worried about their financial bottom line may ultimately bear the heaviest costs of his promised economic transformation—a fact obscured by the very real pain of their current circumstances and the seductive appeal of simple answers to complex problems.
For many Americans, particularly women of color, the election results cut deep. There will likely not be a woman as qualified as Harris in the immediate or foreseeable future. “Watching Kamala Harris run for president is like watching all the disappointments and heartaches of your life playing out in real time,” said author Celeste Headlee, “except this time, the stakes are losing democracy.”
As the nation processes another historic Trump victory, the results force a sobering examination of how economic anxiety, racial attitudes, anti-blackness, and gender bias continue to shape American politics. As one person tweeted, “Someone who worked in all 3 branches of government is losing to a reality TV host.”
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