Democrats point fingers and search for way forward after GOP's election wins

Democrats are questioning what direction to take the party in moving forward after Donald Trump , Republicans took over the Senate and are favored to keep a majority in the House as the final races are being tabulated.

Trump has clinched the presidency and is on track to win 314 electoral votes with Nevada and Arizona still counting ballots, which would be the most a Republican president-elect has won since 1988.

Trump gained ground with multiple groups of voters across the country, including among voting blocs and in communities that are , earning enough support to be on track to become the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years.

With Republicans favored to win a trifecta to control the government, Democrats are trying to figure out what they could have done differently to avoid the outcome of Tuesday's elections.

Some progressive members of the party have theorized that Harris did not lean into enough policies that would excite voters enough to get them to cast a ballot to Harris. Her campaign, which still included some progressive policy proposals, also sought to court Republicans who didn't want to back Trump and took centrist stances on issues like the border and the war in Israel.

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose presidential primary campaigns won support from key voting blocs that Harris underperformed with such as middle-class Latino voters, said the Democratic ticket "abandoned" working class people.

"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders said in a statement about the election. "While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right."

Harris was an adamant supporter of unions throughout her campaign, which paired with multiple initiatives from the Biden White House that strengthened unions and spending priorities that are using government funds to help companies build more manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

That stance translated into endorsements from some of the largest unions, but some groups like the as Trump has made significant gains with union members through promises of tax cuts and tariffs on foreign manufacturers that he says will protect American jobs from being sent overseas.

The economy was the top issue for most voters when deciding who to vote for and was an issue they trusted Trump more to handle in a majority of polls that were conducted in the weeks and months heading into the election.

Most economic data from strong growth to low unemployment and a historically healthy jobs market. But people have still consistently said that they are concerned about the state of the economy and remained very frustrated with inflation that spiraled out of control during the post-pandemic economic resurgence.

"The public was like, 'we are hurting.' The response should be 'OK tell me about that. How can we help?' instead of saying 'well, really it's all in your head.' No, it's not. Eggs cost $9 billion an egg, it's not all in people's heads," said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University.

Some Democrats and observers have argued that the party has struggled to effectively communicate the results of their economic policies, pointing as strong economic data that contrasts with voters' feelings about the state of the economy.

Harris took some steps to try to offer voters some optimism about reducing prices moving forward with policy proposals to make price gouging illegal and giving tax credits to first-time homebuyers amid a crisis in affordability. But those were not enough to soothe concerns about high prices that people were encountering every day trying to purchase necessities.

Data from AP Votecast shows only 29% of voters think the country is headed in the right direction. Only 36% rated the condition of the economy as excellent or good, while 63% said it is not so good or poor.

"When over 70% percent of Americans think we are on the wrong track or headed in the wrong direction, that is not a messaging problem. That is reality problem. Inflation and immigration are not 'messaging problems.' These are realities that produced discontent widespread enough to hand Donald Trump the presidency," said Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. in a post on X. "We ignore the real-world messages that these realities send at our own peril.

President Joe Biden has also received some blame for Harris' election loss, primarily for waiting so long to drop out of the race and limiting her time on the campaign trail to formulate a message that would resonate for Americans.

Rather than going through a primary process that would have allowed for more candidates to stake out their vision for the future that would have drawn contrasts with the Biden administration, an issue Harris struggled with at times, the vice president was only left with a little over three months to make her case to the American people.

It's far from certain that a traditional primary process could have saved Democrats from Trump's convincing victory on Tuesday but even Biden has pointed to the difficult scenario Harris was facing with limited time to win an election facing resistance from the public and an unpopular president that she was tied to as his vice president.

"Harris had to do something that Trump didn't, which is define herself at the same time she had to do mobilization," Dagnes said. "Had the process been longer, you don't have to define yourself. That's already been done for you. Then you play to those strengths and weaknesses. If you are consistently having to define yourself, then you don't know what your strengths and weaknesses are."

A question that frequently dogged Harris' campaign was how she would be different than Biden if she were to win and a line that Trump and other Republicans frequently seized on once she rose to the top of the ticket.

After Trump won the election, Biden issued a statement that praised his vice president for running an "historic campaign" under "extraordinary circumstances." He also delivered at the White House on the election results where he vowed a peaceful transition of power and encouraged his supporters to keep fighting for what they believe in.

"The American experiment endures," Biden said. "We're going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going, and above all, we need to keep the faith."