Where Did It All Go Wrong For Democrats?
How Democrats blew the 2024 election, and what happens now.
The electoral map as of 9:15am on November 6 - 270toWin
On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump won a decisive majority in the Electoral College, becoming the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win two non-consecutive presidential terms. In a shock to pollsters, he managed to carry at least five of the seven swing states seen as critical to the presidency and will, in all likelihood, win the popular vote.
How did it go so wrong for Democrats? Let us reexamine the race and understand what led up to this moment—a series of unforced errors that will likely shape the course of the United States and the world.
The race was botched from the start. It took Joe Biden until July to finally drop out of the election, giving Democrats only 100 days to get their act together. This was error number one, nullifying what could have been a top issue for Democrats: age. By the end of his second term, Donald Trump will be 82 years old. But because Biden looked so much worse on the debate stage, no one cared. Republicans sat back and watched as one of their biggest liabilities faded away.
Democrats shot themselves in the foot again when it came time to nominate Biden’s successor. Instead of listening to voters and holding an expedient primary election, the party coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris and made her the de facto nominee. This was their second mistake. In the minds of many, Democrats were now as undemocratic as Republicans, making their choice a bit easier. To them, Democrats had subverted their constituents—betraying their votes and their will. Now they had lost their legitimacy on democracy, arguably their biggest asset.
For a few months, things seemed optimistic for the former-Biden, now-Harris campaign. Poll numbers were looking up, and Harris was drawing large crowds. “We are not going back!” she enthusiastically proclaimed to millions of Americans.
But in politics, you have to look three ways at once. You must focus on the past but also the present and future. More importantly, you have to define yourself as a candidate. Every political hopeful needs to establish an image: what do you bring to the office that others can’t? The closest we ever got to an answer was from Harris herself: “Like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas.”
Great. But wouldn’t everybody? Harris and the Democrats had an unprecedented chance to redefine themselves and didn’t. That, frankly, is inexcusable given the stakes. Instead, they resorted to their old bag of tricks—positioning themselves once again as the anti-Trump voice in the room instead of pro-anything-else.
This is what lost Democrats the election. They offered a vision for the future that relied on not going back to the past. Their inability to give the American public a clear set of policy stances was simply awe-inspiring, moreso because of the policies Republicans were pushing. Rather, they positioned themselves as a vague, ‘status-quo’ party with no outright appeal to millions of Americans whose primary concerns were the economy, immigration, and crime.
What were Democrats’ stances on these issues? Opaque at best. Inflation? Combat price gouging—reasonable enough, but theoretically even more so compared to Trump’s proposed 20% tariffs. Yet Democrats could not overcome this obstacle, unable to reasonably explain why tariffs would be a bad idea. Immigration? Sign the bi-partisan border bill. As for new ideas? I sure didn’t hear any.
What about protecting democracy, arguably Democrats’ strongest point? Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by bread-and-butter issues. Four years after Trump’s presidency, Democrats’ warnings rang on deaf ears. By the time they realized this, it was too late. Harris tried pivoting to solutions to inflation and immigration, but the horse was out of the barn. The race was slipping away, and there was little to be done about it.
It also didn’t help that Harris was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Caught between her 2019 positions and her newfound moderate stances, her support for Israel and calls for a cease-fire, Harris’s record was mixed at best. All the more reason why there should have been an open primary to let voters decide the nomination.
In hindsight, the election was a massive missed opportunity to finally turn the page on Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Instead, they are ascendant. They now have the White House and the Senate. The House is still up in the air, but trending Republican. This was nothing short of an electoral disaster.
So what happens now for the Democrats? If anything, they must chart a new course. Their old ways have failed—the new Republicans are here to stay. With figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm, who knows where this country will be in four years? If Democrats want to survive in this new environment, they must change their ways.
First, they need to rediscover their roots as the party of Roosevelt. FDR offered solutions when Americans most desperately needed them at the height of the Great Depression. It is up to Democrats to deliver on that promise once again. Instead of running against Republican solutions, they should run for their own. Only in this way can Democrats recapture the magic that produced such enigmatic figures as Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama. They must provide a vision for a future of hope and change.
Secondly, they need to make bread-and-butter issues the centerpiece of their platform. I still believe enshrining abortion rights and preserving democracy can and should have a key place in the Democratic Party. But as last night showed, they cannot lead to electoral victory alone. They must be partnered with other sensible policies, such as gun control and economic reform.
Finally, the Democratic Party needs to pivot towards the middle. If Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush’s primary defeats didn’t make that clear, Election Day sure did. America is in the midst of a rightward shift, and Democrats cannot stand still.
Add it all up, and Democrats have much to learn from last night. One thing is for sure though—if they don’t change their ways, Donald Trump and Republicans will forever be on the march. It will be a long four years, but my belief in American democracy holds fast. Democrats are still strong—they ran one of the greatest money-raising operations this cycle I have ever seen. They have a base of support from 66 million Americans. But if they want to hold their gains and stride confidently into the future, Democrats need to hear these hard truths and learn from them—lest they repeat them.