(AFP) – After predictions of a tight election and a long vote count, Donald Trump won an overwhelming victory to return to the White House after a highly unusual campaign. Here are some of the key takeaways from the Republican’s election victory on Tuesday:
– **Unambiguous victory**
When Trump first won in 2016, his opponents often said it was a fluke due to overconfidence by Democrats and the quirks of the US electoral system. Not so this time. With results still being counted Wednesday, Trump was ahead in every state that President Joe Biden swung back from the Republican camp four years ago, with rival Kamala Harris not scoring any surprise upsets. Early indications showed that Trump was on track not only to win the state-by-state Electoral College that determines US presidents but also the popular vote—the first time a Republican would triumph in absolute vote numbers across the country since George W. Bush 20 years earlier.
– **Unfettered power**
Compared with his first term, Trump will have fewer checks on his power. The Republicans are projected to win back control of the Senate, as was widely expected. The House of Representatives remained too close to call, and even if Republicans win, they would enjoy the slimmest of majorities, effectively empowering fringe lawmakers as all votes are needed. Trump will likely face limited resistance from the Supreme Court, which has a strong conservative majority due to the three justices he nominated. Ahead of the latest election, the Supreme Court voted to shield Trump from prosecution for official acts, effectively preventing a trial of Trump over his rallying of supporters who violently attacked the US Capitol following his 2020 defeat.
– **Broadening Republican base**
Trump gained ground in part by winning more Black and Hispanic voters, often seen as reliable constituencies for the Democrats, although he did not win a majority in either group. Trump won 45 percent of Hispanic voters and 12 percent of Black voters, according to an NBC News exit poll, compared with 32 percent of Hispanics and 8 percent of Blacks in 2020. The shift was particularly sharp on gender lines, with a majority of Hispanic men and 20 percent of Black men voting for Trump this time, according to the exit poll. In a sign of his Latino appeal, Trump became the first Republican to win Miami-Dade County since 1988 and the first to win Texas’s overwhelmingly Hispanic Starr County on the Mexican border since the 19th century. “The Republican coalition is strong and it has expanded,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University. His strength against Harris—who would have been the first woman and second Black president—came despite Trump’s calls for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and insulting language at one of his closing rallies directed at Puerto Rico. Exit polls showed that economic issues were a key factor, with voters remaining concerned over inflation.
– **Quick campaign for Harris**
Harris did not begin to run until July after Biden dropped out of the race following mounting concern about his age. At a closing rally a week before the election, she acknowledged it was not “a typical campaign” and that many voters “are still getting to know who I am.” Speculation immediately turned to whether an earlier exit by Biden would have improved Harris’s chances—or if he himself would have fared better. Harris nonetheless drew an enthusiastic base and raised significantly more money than Trump, helping run a ground operation to get out votes.
– **White House, not courthouse**
Harris had repeatedly warned of a threat to democracy from Trump, who was impeached twice in his first term and will be the first president with a felony conviction. Voters brushed aside any concern about ongoing cases against Trump, including special counsel Jack Smith’s look at Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his mishandling of top-secret documents while out of office. With his return, Trump is all but certain to try to stop cases against him. His supporters have mused about vengeance against Smith and others who have challenged him.
– *Shaun Tandon*
© 2024 AFP
