By Antonia Carter
In 2020, the democratic party led by Joe Biden won the election by a majority as 51.3% of Americans voted for Joe Biden and 46.8% of Americans voted for Donald Trump. The 2024 election outcome was a complete reversal of the 2020 election result. How did this happen? The US election predictions said there would be a tight race between Donald Trump, the republican party leader, and Kamala Harris, the democratic party leader.
Leading up to the election, both parties made mistakes during their election campaigns. At the heart of US elections, Americans hold presidential campaigns which include debates between presidential candidates.
Originally Biden was running for president in 2024, but during one of these exchanges Biden was incoherent, stumbling on an answer regarding childcare and taxes. The American opinion after that debate was that Biden was too old and not fit to run for president even those supporting the democrats held the same sentiment believing that he should step down from the presidential race. After much harrassment from the American public, Biden declared that he would step down from the presidential race.
Vice-President Kamala Harris was chosen to run for president in a vote between party delegates. Some democrats blamed Biden himself saying that he took too long to drop out of the US election. Kamala Harris began her presidential campaign very late with 107 days left until the US election but she soon picked up momentum with many flocking to social media to support her and overall, saying her debates were very strong as she stood up to Trump.
Trump is the first convicted felon to run for president. This has sparked debate with many. During the debate between Harris and Trump, Trump made the claim that, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of people that live there.” However this was proven to be a baseless claim during the debate.
Also during the election Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, which aims to reshape the government in line with conservative values. During Trump’s campaign, two assassination attempts were made on him. The most notable one took place on the 13th July 2024 where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots into the Trump rally whilst Trump was giving a speech near Butler, Pennsylvania. One of the shots hit Trump in his ear but despite this, he still stood resolute on stage creating one of the most iconic political pictures in American history this only bolstered support for him with his followers.
As the campaign came to a close, both candidates were neck and neck and all the opinion polls suggested that the election would be closely matched. However soon after the voting had started, it was clear that Trump had a strong lead. According to Sky News, the supporters who went to Harris’ party initially held an optimistic mood towards the election results but reality set in and it was clear that Harris could not win the US 2024 election.
The supporters who flocked to Trump’s party according to Channel 4 could barely contain themselves as states across the country turned Republican red one after another. To conclude, many credit Harris’ loss for failing to address the US public’s concerns on immigration, economic/cost of living concerns. She also failed to communicate her own policies clearly. Trump won the US election once he secured the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election on 6th November 2024.