Where do Democrats go from here?

Let's cut to the chase, Election Day 2024 was nothing short of a disaster for Democrats. They didn't discount Donald Trump's chance to win, but they did not expect it to be so brutal, nor a situation where he won the popular vote. It's demoralizing for them, but something didn't add up: How did Kamala Harris do so bad nationally, while downballot Democrats did not receive this same effect to the same degree? Based on the results that have come in so far (Saturday, November 9, 2024), Democratic voters did not flock to Trump; voters turned up to vote for Donald Trump, and then left the rest of the ballot entirely blank. Let's look at a few examples:

Wisconsin: 

President:

Donald Trump (R): 1,697,298

Kamala Harris (D): 1,667,881

Senate:

Tammy Baldwin (D): 1,672,418 (4,537 more than Harris)

Eric Hovde (R): 1,643,302 (53,996 less than Trump)

Michigan:

President: 

Donald Trump (R): 2,804,647

Kamala Harris (D): 2,724,029

Senate: 

Elissa Slotkin (D): 2,708,212 (15,817 less than Harris)

Mike Rogers (R): 2,687,995 (116,652 less than Trump)

Nevada:

President:

Donald Trump (R): 724,681

Kamala Harris (D): 678,746

Senate: 

Jacky Rosen (D): 675,659 (3,087 less than Harris)

Sam Brown (R): 654,906 (69,775 less than Trump)

Looking closer at this, it's clear that Democrats don't have a voter problem, they have a Donald Trump problem. There is something they cannot grasp about Donald Trump's reach to apathetic voters that gets them to turn out; but only for him. This is good for them, it means that once Donald Trump is no longer involved with politics, they will have a lot more success, but whenever he has been on the ballot, Democrats suffer. A rough point is the lack of morale that Democratic voters have now experienced due to this loss. They felt as if they did everything right, and the thing is they did do a lot right! They will likely see renewed success in 2026 due to Donald Trump's name being off of the ballot, but the next two years will be rough, and they will have to tread carefully to keep things steady, both with voters and within the government. If any Democratic strategist is reading this, I hope you already came to these conclusions yourself, as this did not take much to figure out, and it should not be that hard to course correct.