Analysis of US election results: 5 factors that led to Kamala Harris’ loss

Donald Trump clinched the 2024 US presidential election on Wednesday. With a historic victory in key battleground states, the Republican candidate has paved the way for his triumphant return to the White House. In the days leading up to Election Day, Democratic supporters showed confidence in maintaining a stronghold over the swing states, only to face sheer disappointment when the former president turned them red. Despite the polls and early vote numbers suggesting a close race, Trump won by a landslide. As the Associated Press finally calls his victory, one can’t help but wonder – where did it all go wrong for Harris? Here are five factors that may have heavily contributed to her loss.

It failed to prove her achievements

Throughout his campaign, which began after Joe Biden’s exit from the race in late July, Harris was more concerned with proving why Trump was the wrong choice than presenting himself as the worthy candidate. While Democrats actively compared the ex-prez to Adolf Hitler and called him a “fascist,” they failed to highlight Harris’ accomplishments. Her glitzy rallies relied more on celebrity appearances than Harris herself.

Recently, conservative activist Charlie Kirk left a Democratic supporter confused after asking them to name one of Harris’ accomplishments. “Just tell me what is Kamala Harris’ greatest accomplishment,” Kirk asked a student in the now-viral TikTok video. Despite vouching for the vice president, the student stumbled as he replied, “The greatest achievement… oh, I can’t definitively say…. that in a way…”

Perceived as weak by many

Dodging questions, spewing “word salad” and avoiding interviews were constant in Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign. The vice president’s inability to lay out detailed plans for her future policies and explain how a Harris presidency would differ from the Biden administration destroyed her matter before the electorate.

On several occasions, her Republican rival, Trump, called her “weak” and “incompetent,” further forcing voters to second-guess what Harris would bring to the presidency. In the days leading up to Election Day, a New York Post op-ed argued Harris’ “greatest enemy is herself,” adding that “her most notable weakness is her inability to convey sincerity in her messages to the public.”

Joe Biden’s Dodgy Legacy

Unlike Trump, the Democratic nominee had a rough start to her campaign as she built her entire run on what was left after Biden’s long-awaited exit from the race. Back in July, after his first presidential debate debacle, Biden finally conceded (Read more: Biden admits Democrats pressured him to drop out of the presidential race). With the Democrats’ public image already facing a dent, Harris had no choice but to build his case on Biden’s dodgy legacy marred by air gaffes and shaky public speeches.

Illegal immigration

One of the most important issues in the 2024 race has been the debate over illegal immigration. The Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate, now the president-elect, sparred continuously over the situation of migrants in the country. On the one hand, Harris criticized Trump’s “mass deportation” strategy; the latter blamed the Biden-Harris administration for allowing illegals to freely enter the United States.

During his final speech before Election Day, Trump’s deputy, JD Vance, called out Harris for prioritizing illegals over actual US citizens. “The number of criminal migrants we have in this country, thanks to Kamala Harris’s failed border policies, is more than twice the size of the United States Marine Corps,” the vice president-elect said. (Read more: JD Vance Takes Brutal Hit on Kamala Harris During Arizona Rally: ‘You’re Fired!’)

High inflation

While the US saw a sharp drop in inflation this year, it remained one of the key issues in the election. The “2022 inflation shock” has been one of the main topics of discussion during the presidential campaign, according to a recent Reuters report. Despite Harris promising to address issues such as “price deflation” and rising property prices, Trump had an advantage among voters.

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 68% of respondents in seven swing states said the cost of living was “on the wrong track,” and 61% said the same about the economy, as of Meanwhile, half of them noted that Trump had “a better plan, policy or approach” to managing the economy, compared to 37% for Harris. Meanwhile, on inflation, Trump was favored 47% to 34%