Election Special 2024
By Chelsea Lu and Melvin Najarian Nov. 13, 2024
The president-elect gained in both Latino and Black voters, especially among young men, and made small gains from women as well. He managed to successfully rally his traditional voters as well: rural white men. Though final counting is expected to continue until mid to late November, Trump is expected to win the popular vote by around 3 million votes, becoming the first Republican candidate to do so since George W. Bush in 2004.
The 2024 election season began almost 2 years ago. On Nov. 15, 2022, former president Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign in a speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Among the first to declare his candidacy for the Republican party, Trump began the bid without his former vice president Mike Pence after their falling out over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. On the Democratic Party’s side, most support was behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who officially announced their reelection campaign in 2021.
Along with Trump, prominent figures such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley entered the race for the Republican nomination, but quickly suspended their campaigns after losing to Trump by large margins in the primaries.
During his campaign, Trump was also battling multiple court cases for both fraud and election interference. As the first former president to have been charged with federal crimes, he was indicted four times between March to August of 2023. Trump was later found guilty in a New York civil case of 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up hush money.
Trump and Biden’s campaigns each focused on issues such as abortion, immigration, and inflation, all discussed in the presidential debate. However, during the debate, it became clear that Biden’s greatest vulnerability—his age—was catching up to him. With slurred sentences and unclear thoughts, his performance was often incoherent and failed to effectively respond to Trump’s lies. According to polls by FiveThirtyEight, most believed Biden had lost the debate, largely as a result of his age. A month later, Biden announced his departure from the election after his favorability polls slid. In turn, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee for the Democrats.
On July 13, a few weeks after the debate, Trump was the target of an attempted assassination at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The hailstorm of bullets narrowly missed, with only Trump’s ear grazed, but an attendee in the crowd was fatally wounded and two others were critically injured. The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was quickly shot and killed by the Secret Service. Soon after, on Sept. 15, a shooter was caught on the grounds of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, he was spotted pointing a rifle behind shrubbery. These assassination attempts were a stark reminder of the threat of political violence, and both Biden and Harris condemned the attacks.
Soon after the attempted assassination, JD Vance, Ohio senator and Yale Law School graduate, was picked as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. Vance, who had been gaining steam in the Republican Party despite his initial opposition to Trump in 2016, had become famous for his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which described his impoverished upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and had also become infamous for a misinterpreted community note on X on July 15 which falsely suggested that he had had sexual relations with a couch.
On Aug. 6, Minnesota governor Tim Walz was announced as Harris’s running mate. Walz's position as a former high school teacher and football coach added relatability to Harris’s campaign. Chosen because of his appeal to white suburban voters, Harris believed he would bring home the “Blue Wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Harris promised federal protection of abortion, expanded child tax credits, caps on drug prices and continuing the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. In her Sept. 10 debate with Trump, she performed well; voters found she appeared well-prepared and collected, in contrast with Trump, who spoke more aggressively and often rambled. However, the two remained vague about their proposed policies; nonetheless, polls done by the New York Times showed that the majority of viewers believed Harris performed better than Trump.
In the following months, Harris’s campaign raised far more funds than Trump’s. According to CNN, the Democratic National Committee raised about $236 million compared to the $135 million raised by the Republican National Committee. While Trump’s rally assassination attempt and his multiple court convictions had brought in more money, the Democratic campaign ultimately outpaced the Republican effort in fundraising regardless. The ultra-wealthy played an instrumental role in both campaigns as well, with Jeff Bezos blocking a direct endorsement of Harris from the Washington Post, Elon Musk donating millions to Trump’s campaign through his America PAC, and many tech company executives, most notably Google’s leaders, donating millions to Harris’s campaign.
The vice presidential debate took place on Oct. 2 between Walz and Vance, offering voters a view of the different visions that the two candidates had for the nation. This debate also illuminated a rare moment in modern American politics, as both candidates approached the debate in a civil manner, without name calling and often coming to agreement on issues facing the nation. Among voters, both running candidates were able to improve their public favorability. Vance, who had a net negative approval rating prior to the debate, gained a slight positive rating afterward.
Trump decided to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Oct. 25. During the three-hour-long podcast, Trump said that he made a mistake in selecting people for his cabinet, and that he would prioritize loyalty in his next presidency. During the podcast, Trump confirmed that he would be open to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Independent presidential candidate who dropped out of the race to support Trump, into his administration. In a later podcast with Trump ally Elon Musk, Joe Rogan officially endorsed Trump. Harris was likewise offered a seat with Rogan, but Rogan refused following the Harris campaign’s demands of an unconventional one-hour podcast in a spot more convenient for Harris than Joe Rogan’s studio in Austin.
“A major contributor to Trump’s campaign was his appeal to political moderates, especially after his previous opponents Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard joined his campaign. These voters may have been on board with the two former Democrats’ policies, and as such followed their political trajectories and voted for Trump,” Senior Levin Gong said.
Kamala also received large outpourings of support from mainstream celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, who she hoped would rally the youth vote. Still, Harris continued to receive backlash for her lack of public appearances outside of limited rallies.
In the final days of October, following an incident in which a comedian at a Trump rally remarked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” President Joe Biden made remarks to a progressive Latino group that suggested Trump supporters were “garbage.” In return, Trump spent the next day as a passenger in a garbage truck while dressed in a garbageman uniform.
When Election Day came, the first domino to fall for Trump was the state of Florida, whose massive Cuban population and influx of retirees continued to shift the state right, giving Trump a 13% margin in the state. The state went for Trump by under 2% in 2016. The next important states to fall were Texas, which swung 9% to the right, largely from an increased Latino vote, then Georgia and North Carolina, both of which swung by 2% largely from a combination of decreased Black turnout, an increased Black male vote for Trump, and a higher rural turnout for Trump. These demographic trends continued throughout the night, scoring Trump the Rust Belt, whose states all went by over 0.8% for Trump, becoming the best result for a Republican in the region since George H.W. Bush in 1988 and outperforming Trump’s own surprise victory in 2016. Once Pennsylvania was called for Trump, with an eventual lead of 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, Trump was announced as the winner of the election.
“It was very sad for me to see the outcome of the election, as well as the voter turnout numbers. Many people who will be affected most by the president-elect's policies still proceeded to vote for him. The right to vote is a privilege—and the privilege was not used by many. The election results clearly show that single-issue voters played a large part, with many ignoring the overall message from their chosen candidate,” Anu Sarkar, Science Department, said.
The day after, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech, admitting defeat under a fair election. She congratulated President-elect Trump on his win, contrasting with Trump’s 2020 defeat, which he disputes to this day. Whether Trump will be able to enact the policy changes he wants largely depends on whether he effectively utilizes his control over Congress, but what is certain is that his impact, especially in the judicial system, will be felt for decades on.
About the Contributors
Chelsea Lu
staff writer
Chelsea Lu is a staff writer and this is her first year in Journalism. She loves hanging out with friends, building legos, and rotting in bed. She also loves writing stories.
Melvin Najarian
staff writer
Melvin Najarian likes playing tennis, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. His favorite band is Keane.
Lyn Kang
art director
Lyn Kang is a Senior at Leland High School and the art director. She love to draw digital illustrations and this is third year in journalism. She likes to watch sport game and hang out with her best friends.
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