‘Political environment sucked’: Democrats reflect on Harris election loss to Trump

Roughly a month after election losses that left Republicans in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress, and saw once-core working class, Latino and women voters slip away, some Democratic officials are trying to explain what happened.

Republican Donald Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris on November 5 was part of a global pattern that saw 80 per cent of incumbent parties lose seats or vote share in 2024, outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a December 3 memo to “interested parties”.

Despite falling short, the party’s historic investments in every US state and territory helped prevent “what could have been a larger red wave,” Harrison wrote.

Democrats raised – and spent – more than US$1 billion just since Vice-President Kamala Harris took over for Joe Biden as the candidate in late July. Nonetheless, the campaign finished the election in the red, financially and politically.

“Although Democrats did not achieve what we set out to do, Trump wasn’t able to capture the support of more than 50 per cent of the electorate and Democrats beat back global headwinds that could’ve turned this squeaker into a landslide,” Harrison, who has said he will leave his post next year, wrote in the memo.

“Trump’s election is far from a mandate,” he wrote.