In the end, most voters wanted to return.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats have lashed out at former President Donald Trump and his message of turning the page on his style of politics, supporting former aides who have questioned his commitment to democracy and producing his own plans to combat things like price gouging and high housing costs. .

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But on Wednesday morning, they were calculating a stunning move by Trump, who now appears poised for a volatile sweep as president-elect, leaving Democrats wondering how it all went so wrong.

“It’s an absolute, complete disaster,” Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis said when asked about the results. “This was a wholesale rejection of the Democratic message, the Democratic strategy, and the Harris candidacy. There’s no way to convey what a terrible disaster this was.”

Trump’s victory was certain. He was expected to win or accelerate to capture all seven swing states as he narrowed his margins in blue states from Minnesota to Virginia to New York. Even after outrage erupted over the removal of constitutional abortion protections, he lost by 10 points after losing to women by 15 points in 2020. And four years ago, he narrowed Harris’ lead among Latino voters to 8 points after losing 33 points.

Democrats, still licking their wounds when speaking to ABC News on Wednesday, laid out a list of prescriptions for the party’s woes, both strategically in how the 2024 race is being run and, more fundamentally, in how the party is perceived from coast to coast and the state of the country. his coalition.

VIDEO: Kamala Harris’ full concession speech

Harris took over in a particularly exciting series of events, taking over the Democratic nomination from Joe Biden after the president’s devastating debate in June spilled jet fuel on concerns about her age and fitness for office.

Many expressed dismay and disappointment and were disturbed that Harris’ historic candidacy and the party brand overall had insufficient appeal to win over voters who instead backed the former president, who has been twice impeached and convicted of 34 felonies.

Logistically, many noted the compressed timeline. In a country where elections have begun to take nearly two years, Harris had nearly 100 days, leading some to point to Biden over the summer as having stayed in the race for so long, or even running for re-election. .

“He should never have been re-elected,” said Jim Kessler, founder of center-left think tank Third Way. “The Democrats and the Biden White House didn’t listen to people well enough and were saying loud and clear ‘your age is a concern.’ And they chose to ignore it. They also said the border was a concern and that all of these things, including Biden’s age, were a concern.” “They said they were getting to the right place on the issues, but it took too long.”

Weeks before the election, Harris and Biden touted policies they said would help Americans deal with rising costs and criticized Trump for essentially eliminating a bipartisan bill that would have strengthened border enforcement.

But in the months before that, the White House had insisted the economy was strong, noted low unemployment and the stock market while tamping down concerns about issues like grocery costs, and had previously been frustrated by an inability to stem the rise in unauthorized border crossings. Relying on executive orders that echo orders issued by Trump himself.

Meanwhile, Harris, a staunch No. 2, appeared uncomfortable moving away from his boss.

Later in the race, he insisted that his administration would not be Biden’s “continuation” and would appoint a Republican to his Cabinet, but Biden had not done so. But a viral clip on ABC’s “The View” in which he essentially said he couldn’t think of anything he could do differently helped cement his existing bond with a president whose approval rating has historically been so low that it has sent his party into crisis. presidential race.

“Frankly, voters thought the country was on the wrong track, and he became the status quo candidate,” said veteran Democratic strategist James Carville. “And the track record of status quo candidates… is not good.”

Some Democrats summed it up with a phrase made famous by Carville: It’s the economy, stupid.

A Gallup poll The survey, conducted in September 2020 (the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic), found that Americans say they are better off than they were four years ago by a 22-point margin. The same poll, conducted last September, showed that Americans believed they were worse off by a 13-point margin (a 35-point swing) than they were four years ago.

“It’s because of inflation, stupid, right?” A source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking said: “At the end of the day, the biggest driver of people’s voting behavior was economic self-interest, and by a wide margin they felt like they were doing pretty well under Donald Trump and not doing well under the current administration. Other things.” “I’m not saying it’s not important, but all of that has been superseded by their own economic conditions.”

Beyond her relationship with Biden, Harris also touched on one of her favorite arguments against Trump: that Trump poses a threat to democracy.

He changed the theme early in his campaign, instead trying to present himself in an atmosphere of “joy”. But while former administration aides like John Kelly blasted him as undemocratic, he jumped on a message that Democrats say has no connection to the everyday struggles of voters.

“Democrats often make the mistake of focusing on long-term problems at a time when voters have immediate concerns. Democracy also seems like a long-term issue and not very concrete. But gas prices, grocery prices, border crossings, the crimes you feel every day are rising,” Kessler said .

Some Democrats saw deeper problems.

Gone are the days when Democrats appealed to working and middle-class Americans, they said. In their place were rallies with Beyonce and concerts with Bruce Springsteen, while Democrats, critics say, were lecturing voters on why the party was right about the issues rather than empathizing with their core concerns.

In short, philosophizing instead of fighting.

“It was the economy, it was inflation, there were concerns about the border, and those were mostly the two most important issues,” Kofinis said. he said. “We had no strategy to address this. As a result, we only fed this alienation. Then, in the classic Democratic presidential campaign strategy eerily reminiscent of 2016, we embrace celebrities and elites to somehow influence and dictate the average. How should the voter vote?”

“I joined the Democratic Party because I wanted to fight the NAFTA trade agreements. I joined the Democratic Party because I wanted to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. I joined the Democratic Party because I was tired of seeing my tax dollars going to foreign wars. My community was collapsing. This is Donald Trump today It means we need to take that message back,” Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha added.

Everything went well for Republicans in this election.

Rather than deepening opposition, Trump’s controversies and legal battles have deepened loyalty among his base. Rather than increasing Democratic turnout, the abortion ballot measures appeared to offer voters an outlet to fight for reproductive autonomy while also separately demonstrating their discontent with the current administration. And instead of running against a candidate offering a new vision from the current White House, Trump faced the second-highest official in the White House.

From now on, the struggle will continue to be successful.

Trump’s romp has the wind on Republicans’ shoulders, and if the GOP takes the House of Representatives, it will have at least two years to solidify a string of successes with a flexible Congress. But the term prevents Trump from running again, and replicating his coalition is easier said than done.

“This is going to be very, very difficult,” said Robert Blizzard, a Republican Party pollster who worked on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign. It was overwhelmingly rejected by primary voters this year.

But even some Democrats, aware of Trump’s traction on the country’s politics, said the path to electoral success depends in part on the next president.

Voters are “hoping for a repeat of the economy they loved in her first term. If they can get that done, it’s going to be a pretty tough road back for Democrats in 2028. But if her tariffs drive up inflation and her recklessness really shows that,” the source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking said voters will be telling voters the same way many think about the economy. He said that it did not have a special sauce and that this would create a real expansion.

“It’s hard, but that’s Trump’s reality in many ways.”

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