How Trump forged a sweeping victory over Kamala Harris

President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was powered by shocking victories from coast-to-coast, in swing states and red states as well as supposed Democratic strongholds.
With wide backing from angry working-class voters, Trump dramatically outperformed his previous election showings in deep blue cities, faded Rust Belt cities and rural towns.
He even held his own in leafy suburbs, defying polls that predicted he would face a harsh verdict from well-educated voters and especially women who told pollsters they were angry over the rollback of abortion rights.
Trump won 44% of the vote in New York State and lost the second-biggest blue state by about only 900,000 votes, a dramatic improvement from his previous two White House races. It was the same story in blue states like New Jersey, where he crept to within about 5 percentage points of winning.
In New York City, he did even better. Trump was on track to win 30% of the vote in the five boroughs, a huge increase from 2020 when he won just 23% and 16% eight years ago.
Republicans say it adds up to a dramatic realignment of American politics, with the GOP speaking for working people angry at cultural elites over issues like the economy and immigration.
“It’s the revenge of the regular old working-class Americans,” said Republican strategist Scott Jennings. “They feel like they’ve been told to shut up.”
In red states, it was the same story. Trump outran his own impressive 2020 performance in both Florida and Texas.
Trump won an extraordinarily broad victory, improving his standing in about 90% of counties nationwide from the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden by about 7 million votes.
Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based GOP analyst, said most Americans of all walks of life were demanding a drastic change from what they see as Biden’s disastrous economic policies. Huge majorities told pollsters for months that the country is on the wrong track, he noted.
“In the end, this race was simple and it came down to fundamentals,” said Mackowiak. “The wrong track number and weak economy told the story.”
The once and future president made huge gains with Latino voters, especially men, nationwide as well as in New York and the metro area.
Trump won 45% of the Latino vote, about 12 points more than in 2020, exit polls said. He won a majority among Latino men, beating Harris by about a 10-point margin.
Exit polls showed his hopes of making significant inroads with Black voters mostly appeared to fall short as Harris mostly held on to the traditional overwhelming Democratic margins, albeit with a slight slippage among Black men.
Some Democratic analysts blamed the enduring power of racism and sexism to divide American voters, especially working-class people.
“It’s not a problem that can be solved by a [political] campaign,” said Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and Democratic analyst. “These are deep-rooted issues in our country that we absolutely need to address.”
Others suggested the answers are simpler. They said Democrats need to start listening to what voters want if they want to win elections.
“As Democrats we have to do a lot of soul-searching,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a frequent critic of leaders in her own party, told CNN. “A lot of people are telling us that we aren’t listening to them.”