Plenty of pundits are issuing explanations why Harris performed so poorly against Trump in the presidential election. Establishing any credibility for these analyses must be judged with respect to a startling bit of data about the election. This source provided a tally of votes received by the candidates in the last three presidential elections.
“The dominant story of the election thus far is the turnout. Donald Trump collected 62 million votes in 2016, grew that to 74 million in 2020, and will check in at a bit less than 74 million this year. In other words, to the extent that he won new voters over this year, they were offset by voters who jumped ship. He really does have a pretty hard ceiling. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton collected 66 million votes in 2016, Joe Biden got 81 million in 2020, and this year, Kamala Harris is going to end up with about 68 million. "Where did all those Biden voters go?" is a question that will haunt Democratic operatives, not to mention political commentators, for months or years.”
Trump’s vote count was essentially equal to that of 2020. Any gains he made over the last four years were balanced by losses. An old white man running against Trump received 13 million more votes than a young black woman running against Trump.
Race and gender—some things never change.
