US Election Results 2024: What went wrong for Kamala Harris?

2024-11-07 11:51 AM IST

After Republican Donald Trump won the US Presidential race, experts are weighing in what went wrong for Kamala Harris. Experts said Harris had been dealt an especially difficult hand amid lingering inflation and low approval ratings for President Joe Biden - who gave up a chance at re-election to clear the way for Harris. "I think in retrospect, one of her biggest challenges wasn`t about her. It was about the fact from the start you were running as a candidate who was tied to a deeply unpopular administration," said presidential historian and Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer. Following Biden’s dramatic withdrawal just months before Election Day, Harris threw her campaign together as if it were an airplane being built while in flight, her advisers told reporters. The 60-year-old former prosecutor and U.S. senator pressed a case that Trump was a threat to democracy and that emphasized women’s rights, while promoting a populist economic platform and reproductive freedoms. Her entrance upended a race that her party had looked set to lose. She made history as the first woman of color at the top of a major party ticket. She triggered a surge in enthusiasm, broke fundraising records – raising $1 billion in less than three months – and drew endorsements from celebrities ranging from pop star Taylor Swift to actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Harris’ campaign ultimately failed to overcome deep-seated voter concerns about inflation and immigration – twin issues that opinion polls showed favored Trump.

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