Kamala Harris Underperformed with Three Core Demographics
Vice President Kamala Harris lost the presidency to Donald Trump after failing to improve on President Joe Biden 's 2020 performance with three key voting blocs.
Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House after winning battleground Wisconsin early on Wednesday morning.
Harris, the first woman of color to top a major party ticket, had replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee after he dropped his bid for re-election in July amid concerns about his age.
Over the course of about three months, she sought to introduce herself to voters as well as draw a contrast with Trump, who had refused to accept defeat after the 2020 election, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and was convicted of felony charges earlier this year.
He waged a campaign that seized on frustrations over the economy and fears about migrants, pledging to expel millions in the largest deportation program in American history in a second term.
Trump emerged triumphant after improving on his 2020 performance with most demographics to win back key battlegrounds that he lost to Biden in 2020, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia.
Harris' defeat comes as exit polls show shifts in support to Trump among three demographic groups that had propelled Biden to victory four years ago: Black, Hispanic/Latino and younger voters.
Black voters
Black voters have long been a loyal voting bloc for Democrats . They were crucial to Biden's victory in 2020, when 92 percent voted for him and just 8 percent backed Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.
But exit polling suggests Harris performed slightly worse with Black voters than Biden did four years ago. She won the support of 86 percent of Black voters, while Trump got 12 percent, according to exit polling conducted by Edison Research.
Black women overwhelmingly supported Harris over Trump this year, 92 percent to 7 percent, according to exit polling. Black woman had supported Biden in 2020 by a similar margin, 95 percent to 5 percent.
There had been concerns that Harris was losing support among Black men, and exit polls suggests they supported her by a slightly smaller margin—78 percent to 20 percent—than they did Biden in 2020. That year, Biden secured the support of 87 percent of Black men, while Trump got 12 percent support.
Hispanic/Latino voters
Harris won a majority of Hispanic/Latino voters nationally, 53 percent to Trump's 45 percent, according to exit polling.
But she did significantly worse than Biden, who carried Latino/Hispanic voters by a double-digit margin—59 percent to Trump's 38 percent—in 2020.
Hispanic/Latino men broke for Trump in larger numbers this year (54 percent to Harris' 44 percent) than in 2020, when Biden secured the support of 57 percent and Trump got 40 percent. But exit polling suggests Harris had the same level of support from Hispanic/Latino women (61 percent to 37 percent) as Biden did in 2020.
Younger voters
Voters aged 18 to 29 supported Harris over Trump by about 13 percentage points. She got the support of 55 percent of voters in this age group, while Trump got 42 percent, according to exit polling.
But her performance with the age group slipped from Biden's four years ago. He won the age group by 24 percentage points in 2020, when 59 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 backed him and 35 percent voted for Trump.
Harris, however, did perform better with voters aged 65 and older than Biden did in 2020. She and Trump got roughly half the votes each from that age group this year, while Trump had won voters aged 65 and over by a four-point margin, 52 percent to Biden's 48 percent, in 2020.
