Opinion: Why did Trump win?
With the 2024 presidential election being one of the closest ever in American history, it really begs the question of: Why did Trump win?
Trump won every single one of the 7 expected swing states, which include: Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. He also made sleeper flip states like Texas and Florida much more Republican (exhausting any Democratic aspirations there for now) while making traditionally blue states like New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island much more competitive. While Trump did only win the popular vote by 1.5%, his electoral college victory was clearly a "landslide," beating his opponent Kamala Harris by almost 100 electoral votes out of 538. This contrasts with what most polls were forecasting, showing a very tight race in the electoral college between Trump and Harris, with many expecting split results across all 7 swing states.
Trump's win could be attributed to a variety of factors, but the ones which I will list now are subjectively emphasized based on my own opinions as to why Trump won so decisively.
One of the greatest reasons for Trump's win in my opinion was the near perfect effort by the Trump team in their campaign. Unlike their 2016 and 2020 efforts, now they were much more prepared, organized, and well-experienced than ever before as they had experience of two past election cycles. They knew exactly how to play the political game: they used social media for their benefit like never before, they used "memes" and other clever tactics at increasing attention and support, and they portrayed themselves as the retribution to the nation's problems. Hammering the issues most relevant to the average American voter like the economy and illegal immigration led to many low propensities who may have never voted before or voted reluctantly for Biden in 2020 to move drastically for Trump this time. Social media likewise played a big role in the Trump campaign; using digital connections from Barron Trump and other members of the MAGA movement, the team was able to unleash a wave of interviews with well-known celebrities like Adin Ross and Joe Rogan while also getting many of their endorsements. The sheer amount of clout, attention, and support for the third Trump campaign was just simply much greater than ever before.
Secondly were the poor choices of the Democratic ticket. First aiming to run President Biden for a second term, due to his sheer unpopularity and his poor performance in the 2024, the party booted him from running and instead nominated vice president Kamala Harris, who was also even more unpopular and much less well-known. Despite getting a massive popularity surge following the DNC, it was clearly not enough for her to surpass Trump's established support. Harris also had a very weak campaign herself; she refused to hammer the issues as effectively as Trump, bringing up abortion rights and threats to democracy despite them being much less important in the eyes of many voters. She refused to conduct interviews, appeal to the young male population, or make press conferences. In the end, her ignorance on the campaign as well as her shy and unappealing image made her suffer the worst electoral college defeat for a Democrat since 1988, and worst popular vote defeat since 2004.
Democrats need to use this election as a lesson for how they should appeal to the common man; instead of alienating huge sects of the population and bringing up less significant issues to the table, they must express unity of opinion/voice while focusing on what actually matters to voters. Republicans must continue to use what worked this election while inventing similar strategies to garner more wins in the future.
