For all of Vice President Kamala Harris's (faux) claims that she alone is the protector of democracy, the American people delivered a stinging rebuke to her leadership over the last four years.
As state after state (Georgia, North Carolina) fell into the Trump column by comfortable margins, Harris's only potential pathway to the presidency was to win all three Blue Wall states. But she trailed Trump in them throughout the night.
With one of the three Blue Wall states, Michigan, still to be called, Fox News declared Trump America's 47th president after he won Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the third Blue Wall, to give him 277 electoral college votes. Trump became the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win non-consecutive terms. He could also win the popular vote, which no GOP candidate has done since George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump delivered brief remarks in front of his supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, acknowledging his victory. However, at 3:52 AM ET, the NY Times had still not called the race for Trump and criticized him for celebrating a win before the results were final. Some things, we suppose, will likely not change.
On Election Day, the American voters spoke decisively. They put to shame the thousands of Never Trumpers who used every tool in their arsenal to destroy Trump since he won the 2016 nomination. The media coverage has been overwhelmingly negative, and after Harris's selection as the Democratic Party nominee, it became more so. When Ann Selzer, the respected Des-Moines Register pollster, released her survey on Sunday, saying that Kamala was ahead in Iowa 47-44%, the media was so delighted that they made Selzer a celebrity. The final result? Trump won Iowa 56-42.
Trump racked up impressive victories across the country, many of which are historic. His diverse base included union workers, Hispanics, Blacks, and young voters. His stress on early voting helped run up more votes than in the prior two elections in rural counties in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which typically vote red. That was his buffer.
To the Harris campaign's disappointment, voters didn't support her as strongly as they backed Biden in 2020 from the urban, college-educated, suburban, Black, and women constituencies that form the core of her strength. The combination of overvotes in the former and undervotes in the latter propelled Trump to formidable leads in the battleground states that ultimately held.
The red states just became redder. Ohio, which was Trump +6 in 2016 and Trump +8 in 2020, became Trump +14 this time. In Texas and Florida, Trump won by 14 points. Trump's coattails were so broad that he helped down-ballot Senate races, as Ted Cruz (TX) comfortably beat Colin Allred, and Rick Scott (FL) held on to his seat. In Ohio, Bernie Moreno of the GOP unseated Democratic star Sherrod Brown by four points. Republican Jim Justice in West Virginia needed no help from Trump as he comfortably wrested retiring Democrat Joe Manchin's seat there, 69-27. The United States Senate will change hands to GOP control, so goodbye, Chuck Schumer.
We would also love to bid farewell to the numerous people whose political careers are now over. Vice President Harris will return to California and watch Governor Gavin Newsom rise as a leading contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination. The public will forever be spared her word salads, cackles, body shifts, and scary anger. Liz Cheney should also go the route of an IBM Selectric typewriter, but many media outlets will continue to keep her alive on the speaking circuit. Goodbye to Karine Jean Pierre, whose pointless White House press conferences will now become a thing of the past.
Goodbye also to Merrick Garland, the most partisan AG in recent memory, and his Special Counsel, Jack Smith. Trump will likely stop all the federal trials and do everything in his power to have the other state and county cases against him dismissed. The disastrous foreign policy team of Jake Sullivan and Antony Blinken will thankfully be gone, with no future Democratic administration ever willing to hire them back. They have done enough damage to America.
Of course, the resistance movement against Trump will continue, but Trump, who will never campaign again for public office, will be free from the daily pressures of engaging with the nonsense. In his victory speech, Trump said that this was a time to heal and that he would work tirelessly to return America to greatness for all Americans. He also said that promises made are promises kept. We take him at his word.
It is morning again in America.
