Many of Kamala Harris’ supporters were shocked at the results of the 2024 election. Her supporters widely believed that her campaign has superior voter outreach, connection with women and younger generations, and more economically sound policies. However, she still failed to secure enough votes to make her President of the United States. Why?
The main issue with Harris’ campaign was simply that she did not have substantial campaigning time to establish what she stood for. Had the Democratic party promoted her as the Democratic candidate earlier on, instead of waiting until Joe Biden stepped down, her chances of winning would’ve been higher. In addition, there were many other factors at play. The fact that she is a woman, for one, already placed her far behind her running mate, Donald Trump, who beat 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. People tend to question your authority more when you’re a woman, even when this woman in particular had years of experience in all three branches of politics.
The correlation between education level and who people voted for is also noteworthy. Based on numerous polls from news websites, the majority of Harris’ voters either had a degree or some type of education after high school, while Trump led with more voters who lacked a degree. Many who supported Trump may not have been aware of his policies or their potential effect on the U.S. population, and were just rallying behind what was being said during his speeches or debates.
Many of those less educated voters could have been getting their information from less reliable sources such as podcasts, as the rise of politics on social media has contributed to a rise in news-based influencers. Trump is often found on podcasts that are more popular with male audiences, especially young men. Trump’s encounter with Theo Von on his podcast reached 14 million views, exhibiting how widespread Trump’s reach was as he was doing all of this internet publicity. While the failure of Kamala’s campaign can be attributed to the ineptitude of the Democratic party, it is important to acknowledge that other components contributed to its ineffectiveness.
