Why Kamala Harris Lost the 2024 Election | The Triangle
Opinion

Why Kamala Harris Lost the 2024 Election

Nov. 15, 2024
Photo by Kasey Shamis | The Triangle

On Oct. 4, The Triangle published my article “Kamala Harris might not win.” There, I outlined the events that made her the 2024 Democratic nominee for president, her time as attorney-general and senator of California, her 2020 presidential race and the obstacles that stood in her path to win The White House in 2024. Now that we know Harris will not be the 47th president, what happened between early October and Nov. 5?

One event that stood out to me the most was Harris’ appearance on The View. Specifically, when Sunny Hostin asked Harris, “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” Harris responded, “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” before adding that she was part of most major decisions made by the Biden administration.

Really? Not a single thing? You would not have approached the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, where 13 American soldiers were needlessly killed, differently? What about the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, where over 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed and 250 kidnapped, by Hamas? What about the war in Ukraine, the border crisis or China’s slow encroachment upon Taiwan? You would change nothing in America’s response?

A second cause that contributed to Harris’ election loss was Biden’s approval rating. CNN’s latest Poll of Polls for Biden’s approval rating had him at 38 percent, and a disapproval rating of 57 percent. Despite Harris’ repeated message that she was not Biden, and her claim that she was always the last person in the room for every decision during Biden’s presidency, it was hard to not cast some of the blame on her for Biden’s lacking approval rating.

A third contributor would be her running mate. The Vice Presidential debate serves to answer two questions: Who do we, the American people, trust in office, and who do the candidates trust? Tim Walz made it clear that he trusts “the experts.” He trusted the supposed bipartisan S.4361 border bill experts as it died on the Senate floor. Trust in “the experts” may be up with Walz, but according to Gallup, only 28 percent of Americans are confident in major U.S. institutions. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, commented during the debate how economic experts lack an understanding of the Trump administration’s tax plan, likely bolstering voters’ distrust among U.S. institutions.

The final contributor to Harris’ loss was President Biden calling supporters of Trump “garbage”. There is a saying in the culinary world, “Sauce covers a multitude of sins.” No amount of sauce would cover this monumental political sin. Insulting opposition party voters, where Republicans make up 48 percent of the registered voter base in America, including Democrats and Independents who may have voted for Trump in previous elections, is the one thing an elected official should avoid. Given that Harris continuously struggled to separate herself from Biden, it is no surprise that voters cast their ire upon her as well.

Harris made many achievements throughout her career. She graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of Law with a Doctorate in Law, and was hired as a district attorney in California. There she became Senator, and was eventually named Biden’s vice president for his first term. She became many things, but one thing that is clear is that she is “not Joe Biden,” and she is certainly not the 47th president of The United States.