Donald Trump won the US election to become the 47th President in a resounding victory. He overcame all sorts of personal shortcomings that would derail the political career of any other person. It is an extraordinary feat never accomplished in the democratic realm. Just imagine: This is a person who has 34 felony convictions and has twice been impeached by congress. This same person and the Republicans riding his coattails were given a decisive victory.
Trump won the electoral college and the popular vote for this year's presidential election. In 2016, he lost to Hillary Clinton in popular votes by nearly three million, and he lost to Biden in 2020 by more than seven million. What happened this time?
On the eve of the US election, a mere week before November 5, in a grand and dark rally in Madison Square Garden, a comedian hired by the Trump campaign scoffed, in comments vetted by the campaign, at citizens of Puerto Rican descent by calling their motherland a “floating island of garbage.” Donald Trump rode into prominence in the 2016 election cycle by terming Mexican immigrants “criminals and rapists.” Recently, a bipartisan immigration bill solving some lingering issues at the southern border -- and potentially helping cool American hostility towards Hispanics -- was reportedly killed behind-the-scenes by Trump. And who can forget the wall Trump started building along the Mexican border?
Despite these affronts to immigrants of Hispanic descent, Trump's 2024 election victory partly owes to the support awarded by Hispanic voters in Pennsylvania and other swing states, not to mention his victory in Miami-Dade County, in Florida, with a Hispanic majority of nearly 69%.
What about black male voters? As per a Newsweek report on November 6, “NBC News, which polled voters in 10 key states, said Trump's support among black voters in Wisconsin stands at around 21%, while Harris is at 77%. This is up from 2020, when Trump won just 8% of black voters in the Badger State.” That is more than double in a make-or-break swing state. It's no surprise that Kamala Harris could not win Wisconsin, a "blue-wall" state.
In a YouTube video, "Donald Trump's record when it comes to black men | Roland Martin Interview," Kamala Harris mentioned Trump’s debate day speech, in which he falsely and wildly claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eat pets. Kamala Harris also mentioned that Trump, as a landlord, did not rent to black families and was sued for it -- and that he had bought full-page newspaper ads demanding that the death penalty be brought back for the Central Park Five, who were proven innocent later in the court of law. But these reminders of Trump's apparent disdain for people of colour fell on deaf ears. Donald Trump got a more significant share of black male votes this year than in 2016.
Donald Trump put three judges on the Supreme Court bench, creating a six-to-three alignment in favour of the conservative right. This reconstructed Supreme Court killed a woman’s right to abortion -- which Trump eagerly took credit for. Following this change, legislators of several states, dominated by Republicans, passed laws that made abortion extremely difficult, even for incest and rape. Conservatives are supposed to prefer less government control over individuals. However, for women, they are willing to impose more control. But did women flee Trump in this strange election?
No.
Kamala Harris, a woman who wanted to bring back the federal protections in Roe v Wade and to re-establish the right to make decisions regarding their health and their bodies, received 3% fewer female votes than President Joe Biden did, per recent exit polls.
How can one explain this strange voting behaviour? Have I, like Alice, woken up from a fitful slumber by the pond near my backyard under a gloomy autumn sky? Was it a dream that took me through the looking glass to a demented Wonderland in which logic stands on its head? Alas, it was not a dream. It is the wonderland called the United States of America.
Dr Mostofa Sarwar is a professor emeritus, former Associate Provost of Academic Affairs, and Director of the University Honors Program at the University of New Orleans. He was dean, provost, and vice-chancellor of Delgado Community College and served as a visiting professor and adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania.
