What Do Your Peers Think Regarding the Results of the Election? 

On November 5th, Americans went to the polls and voted for offices ranging from mayors to the presidency. The election between current Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump was like no other in American history, and the results were surprising to many. 

From the time the first polls closed, Trump was ahead. Despite this, the Harris team stayed optimistic since in most states, many rural areas (which commonly support Trump) tend to report data first. As the night went on, with more state polls closing and crucial vote counting continuing, Harris’ numbers seemed to stay down in key battleground states. Even though she was winning in big cities, she wasn’t seeing as big of a turnout in the suburbs as expected, which was what carried Joe Biden to the presidency in 2020. 

At about 2:30 AM on November 6th, Fox News officially declared Donald Trump was projected as the 47th President, denying Kamala Harris another four years in Washington D.C. CNN, ABC, and NBC would later follow Fox and project Trump as the 47th president. He would win all seven battleground states (Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia), which wasn’t expected from either side, but he proved the polls wrong. 

This idea of “the polls favoring Democrats,” seems to be a common trend.  In 2016, on a CNN pre-segment, Hillary Clinton started the night with 268 likely votes but ended up losing with only 227. This shows that it’s hard to reach Trump voters in polls, which leads to the Democratic candidate taking the lead in polls. This continued in 2020: although Biden won, he won states by smaller margins than expected in polls. This happened in 2024 again with Trump winning every key battleground state and ending with 312 electoral votes (despite Harris being favored in the polls).

After news channels started calling the election in Trump’s favor, he gave a speech declaring victory and thanking his supporters. He also said he would, “restore America to greatness” in his next term. On the other side, Harris and her team conceded the race to Trump. She thanked her supporters and offered a peaceful transfer of power. Despite the loss, she said, “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign." This sends the message that she will continue to fight for the ideals her campaign stood for. 

In the aftermath of a very close election, many are left wondering, “How did this happen?” Many events happened during the campaign season that benefited both sides, but here are the five biggest events that boosted Trump’s team. 

1. Joe Biden’s 2024 Campaign- 

In June of 2024, President Trump and President Biden had a debate for President, where according to CNN, 67% of people thought Trump had won the debate with a margin of error that could’ve gotten up to a rounded 73%. Biden dropped out on July 21st after many Democrats like Nancy Pelosi urged him to step down. However, since he dropped out so late, Kamala Harris’ campaign was rushed and much harder to fuel compared to Trump’s. 

2. Assassination Attempt- 

On July 13th, Trump held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. During the rally, he turned to look at a chart propped up but then got shot in his ear. Many people said that if he did not turn, he would’ve been killed and divided this country like never seen before. After being shot, the Secret Service helped him get into a getaway car, but not before Trump put up his fist and screamed, “Fight. Fight. Fight!” Although there were some other minor threats, this one was the most impactful to his campaign and set a powerful tone in the Republican Party. He would return to Butler in October and it was the biggest rally of his campaign. 

3. Democrats Endorsing Trump- 

Although there were many Republicans who despised Trump like Liz Chenney and Mitt Romney, Democrats who endorsed Trump were better known among the public. The most notable Democrat was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (the nephew of 35th President John F. Kennedy), who up until August was on the ballot in some states and ran as a third party candidate for the party We The People. In the Newsweek polls right before he dropped out, he was at about 4% which was high compared to other third-party candidates in the past. After his team realized they couldn’t win he offered to meet with both the Harris and Trump teams. The Trump team accepted while the Harris team rejected. Eventually, on Friday, August 23rd, RFK suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump and said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left me.” This was a powerful endorsement for Trump especially coming from a Democratic candidate. It seemed to speak volumes about the Harris campaign. This endorsement influenced RFK supporters on election night, as a CNN exit poll showed that Trump led Harris in Independent voters by 10% which was a major loss for the Democrats since they won in 2020 with Independent voters by 10%. Other Democrats that endorsed him were Elon Musk (a multi-billionaire) after not supporting Trump in 2020, and Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic Nomination in 2020 and attacked Kamala Harris’ record at the first debate for Democratic candidates in 2020. 

4. Interviews- 

From August-October when campaigns were in full motion, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance did many interviews with CNN, NBC, Fox, and ABC, while Kamala Harris and Tim Walz didn’t do as many interviews. This meant they had less of a platform to spread their ideas and agenda. This hurt their campaign to older generations who commonly watch the news and rely on things like interviews to decide who they will vote for. Moving past news sources, Harris rejected going on Joe Rogan’s podcast (a popular podcast for younger adults) while Trump went on the podcast and eventually, he (Trump) got Rogan’s endorsement. 

5. Social Media- 

Donald Trump has gained a lot of support through social media followers which has helped push his plans and ideas to young, undecided voters (who made up a good amount of voters in this election). On TikTok, Trump has 14.3 million followers, compared to Harris’ 9.3 million followers. On Instagram, Trump has 29.1 million followers, compared to Harris’ 19.7 million followers. Lastly, and by the biggest difference, Trump has 93.9 million followers on X, while Kamala Harris has 21.3 million followers (as of November 10th). Social media has helped Trump reach young voters easily and get him those extra tens of thousands of votes he needed to win in key battleground states. 

It’s also important to note that the Senate and House of Representatives are also controlled by Republicans, which will help Trump pass laws easier and to his advantage. Whether you like it or not, Donald Trump will be your president starting on January 20th, 2025 at noon EST.