Why did Kamala Harris lose the election? Here’s what Democratic lawmakers are saying

Soon after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the presidential election, Democratic officials began working on a postmortem on her campaign, seeking to find out what went wrong.

Lawmakers offered numerous potential reasons for her loss, including that Harris put forward inadequate economic proposals and alienated key constituencies.

Here are a few of the key theories for her loss to President-elect Donald Trump, likely marking the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has lost the popular vote since 2004.

Weak economic agenda

One of the chief criticisms of the Harris campaign — and the Democratic party writ large — is that they did not offer a bold and more specific economic vision, particularly for the working class.

“My gut check is that this is about economics, people feeling like things are swirling out of control,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said in an interview with MSNBC.

Ro Khanna, a California representative in the U.S. House, put it bluntly in an opinion piece for The Boston Globe: “Democrats failed to present a compelling economic vision for the working class, and we lost because of it.”

“We don’t offer a different option,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington told KUOW. “(Trump) is a billionaire, yes, but we also surrounded ourselves with billionaires. We allowed corporate interests to dictate policy.”

Their solution? A bold, more populist economic agenda that addresses the needs of all Americans.

“To come back, we must speak to the anger of families who have been shafted by our economic system and offer surgical solutions to remedy them instead of glib slogans that could have been generated by ChatGPT,” Khanna said. “We need a New Economic Deal.”

“Real economic populism should be our tentpole,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote in a post on X, adding, “we cannot be afraid of fights - especially with the economic elites who have profited off neoliberalism.”

Alienated men

Harris and the Democrats also did not do enough to appeal to men, a majority of whom voted for Trump, Democratic lawmakers said.

Men across the country are experiencing an “identity crisis,” Murphy said.

“As the patriarchy, society’s primary organizing paradigm for centuries, rightly crashes,” he said, “the right pushes an alluring dial back. The left says ‘get over it.’”

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania addressed this issue in an interview with Semafor.

He said that men — specifically young men he referred to as “bros” — are looked down upon by the Democratic party.

“They’re described as dopes, or gullible, or brutes,” Fetterman said. “I think that was part of the new coalition that really delivered a pretty crushing victory for Trump.”

Moving forward, Democrats need to listen more to the concerns of men and be less judgmental — which is a key criticism of the party, Murphy said.

Ignored immigration concerns

Harris and the Democrats also ignored broadly felt concerns about illegal immigration, one lawmaker said.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas told CNN that he warned his party they could lose voters over immigration at the southern border.

“Guys, there’s something going on,” he told the outlet, adding that even “little old ladies” from church were urging him to do something about the border.

Polls conducted ahead of the election found immigration was among voters’ top concerns.

Social issues

In trying to figure out what went wrong, some Democrats have also pointed to Harris’ stance on certain social issues, like transgender rights.

“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York told The New York Times. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”

Similarly, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts told the outlet, “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

A post-election poll from Blueprint, a research organization aimed at boosting Democrats, found many voters believed Harris, who mostly deflected questions on transgender issues during the campaign, was “focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.”

Some Democrats, however, have pushed back on the comments surrounding the transgender community, including U.S. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, who wrote on X, “leave trans kids alone.”

The debate over how to approach policy surrounding the transgender community comes after Delaware elected Sarah McBride as the first-ever transgender U.S. House representative.

Failure to differentiate from Biden

At least one Democrat also said that Harris did not do enough to differentiate herself from President Joe Biden, who experienced sagging job approval numbers before withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election in July.

“She didn’t distance herself from him and it came with a lot of challenges,” Jayapal said.

She added: “I was in a lot of swing states where Muslim and Arab voters made the difference. She didn’t differentiate herself there,” referring to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

When asked on ABC’s The View if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden during his first term, Harris said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” She later added on the show that she would include a Republican in her cabinet.

Part of a global phenomenon

Brian Schatz, a U.S. senator from Hawaii, also said that Harris’ loss needs to be examined in a broader context.

He reposted a Financial Times analysis, which found that every incumbent party up for election in developed nations — including in the U.K., France and Japan — lost vote share.

“This context is relevant for those who feel like this defeat is structural and permanent,” Schatz said. “Nothing ever is.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Why did Kamala Harris lose the election? Here’s what Democratic lawmakers are saying."