Welcome to the final stage of grief, Democrats. Early Wednesday, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, despite being an underdog in all 3 elections that he was the republican nominee in, beat out VP Kamala Harris by a surprisingly decisive Electoral College margin.
Trump battled through many of his previous staffers turning against him and a whopping 34 felony convictions (that he will be pardoned for by himself) to win his way back to the White House. The Senate, as expected, flipped back to the Republicans with a 53-47 majority, and we are still waiting on several key races in the House of Representatives, although the GOP will have a slim majority there as well. This is a best case scenario for Trump and his followers, and code red for Democrats.
A republican controlled House and Senate will give Trump every tool he needs to carry out his agenda. Democrats will now rely on moderate republicans’ votes, a hard task within Trump’s republican party. With the current stranglehold that Trump has on the majority of Republicans in Congress, Trump could be set for essentially unchecked power, giving him significantly more leeway this time around.
Trump’s cabinet, which he is just putting the finishing touches on, is more focused on those who will remain loyal to him than those who have overwhelming experience in a related position (See: Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK). Reports have come out in recent days, however, that former Senate majority leader Mitch McConell told Trump that each cabinet appointment would have to go through the Senate, which may put Gabbard and Gaetz’s nominations in jeopardy. This, along with the selection of John Thune as the new majority leader, give Democrats a glimmer of hope that the more moderate Republicans could stand their ground in D.C.
In the early days of his presidency, he will likely do as much as possible without congressional approval, although the more large-scale ideas will have to go through full red Capitol Hill.
The Path
Trump launched his campaign more than two years ago, and despite setbacks, including refusing to concede the 2020 election and indirectly launching an attack on the Capitol, he immediately became the favorite to win the Republican nomination for a 3rd straight year. Even while bouncing between courtrooms and not competing in any primary debates, his status was never in doubt. Trump’s suspected top challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, dropped out quickly and endorsed the former and soon to be current President. Candidate Nikki Haley made it the furthest – to Super Tuesday – but even she eventually endorsed Trump.
At first, it looked like we’d be following the largely unwanted rematch of Trump and Biden, but pressure for Biden to drop out following a worrying debate performance thrust VP Kamala Harris into the Democratic nomination. Harris was tasked with running a full campaign in just over 100 days, and picking a VP nominee in about 3 weeks. What first seemed impossible quickly gained momentum, and the DNC was a party in comparison to the RNC.However, neither the presidential nor the VP debate had a lopsided enough winner to make a major difference. Still, in the closing days of the campaign, it felt like the momentum was swinging towards Harris.
On election day, there were record turnouts throughout the country, a good sign for Democrats. Going into the poll closings, Harris seemed to have a slight edge for the first time, but losing Florida’s Miami-Dade county was the first sign of a Trump advantage. The first wave of results from Georgia and North Carolina were somewhat even, but by about 8:30, Trump had a clear lead, despite NC’s governor race going blue within 15 minutes of polls closing. From then on throughout the night, Trump’s victory was never in doubt, ending up with all 7 swing states, 6 of which he lost in 2020. At about 5:30 on Wednesday, November 6th, Donald J. Trump became the 47th president-elect of the United States. He joins Grover Cleveland as the only two presidents to serve 2 non-consecutive terms, and he joins nobody as the only 34 time convicted felon (to be pardoned soon) to hold the country’s highest office.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-president.html#
https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/house?election-data-id=2024-HG&election-painting-mode=projection-with-lead&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false&filter-remaining=false
https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/senate?election-data-id=2024-SG&election-painting-mode=projection-with-lead&filter-key-races=false&filter-flipped=false&filter-remaining=false
