In the aftermath of the unexpected reclaiming of the Presidency by Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and the Democratic party, witnessed a moment of discomfort and self-introspection. A multitude of political scholars, interest groups, and an array of media commentators has been engrossed in assessing why the incident occurred. Deep scrutiny of the voting patterns has outlined a bewildering and disappointing trend for Harris. It seems she was unable to maintain the ground gained by Biden in the previous election, particularly among the younger male demographic, particularly those who identified as Latino and African American Californians. She also failed to foster enough support from other sections, like women, to compensate for this loss.
Reports indicate that Harris’ performance among male voters was underwhelming, trailing six points behind Biden’s. However, this decline was markedly higher among Latino men (-12) and Black men (-7), presenting a worryingly clear image of how her appeal eroded across key sectors of the electorate. The dip amongst white men without a college degree, traditionally less likely to lean democratic, was slightly less dramatic at -3. Surprisingly, even highly significant aspects of her political persona, including her history-making nomination as a woman of color candidate for the presidency, did not generate the enthusiasm one might expect.
Different groups of women reacted to Harris’s candidacy with apparent indifference. The share of votes garnered by Harris was almost equal to Biden’s share in the 2020 election, with the exception of a distinct decline amongst Latinas. Additionally, Harris fell short of Biden amongst women of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent (-4), failing to make any real improvement with African American women. It paints a bleak picture of Harris’ failure to inspire a female electorate which might reasonably have been expected to rally to her historic campaign.
Harris, even though heralded as a Californian stalwart who graced the seats of the state’s attorney general, a U.S. senator and then as Biden’s vice president, could not salvage her dwindling popularity in her home state. A testament to its liberal-leaning politics, California, however, ominously foretold the fate of Harris’s campaign. Shockingly, during last year’s election, 10 counties within California, which were known for firmly backing Biden against Trump in 2020, shifted alliances to Trump. A fresh appraisal of the state’s votes mirrors, strikingly, the national voting trends.
An alarming surge among young registered voters across all races and ethnicities towards the Republican party has been observed, with the surge among Latino youth in particular presenting a worrying development for the Democrats. California’s 2024 general election produced unexpected numbers. Harris secured 58.5% of all votes, whereas Trump took home 38.3% of the votes. This marks the narrowest party-voting margin (20.2 percentage points) witnessed since before 2008.
The crippling impact of inflation has been pointed to as a predominant factor behind this shift where the younger voters felt the economic brunt more acutely. California, despite the recent debacle, continues to be a region of strong Democratic influence. The thought of Republicans, whose dominance was once undisputed, reclaiming enough territory to again push the state’s electoral votes in favour of a GOP candidate in the foreseeable future appears improbable.
However, the growing right-leaning tendencies among young colored voters, irrespective of the reasons, coupled with the departure of the older Democratic stalwarts, could herald unpredictable and interesting times ahead for California politics.
The post Harris’s Underwhelming Appeal Fails to Cement Young Male Electoral Base appeared first on Real News Now.
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