Surprising Two (of many) reasons that Kamala Harris lost the election

Any number of legitimate reasons could be adduced for why Donald Trump won the election. But I think the better angle is to account for why Kamala Harris lost it, especially considering how broad was her defeat.

As a threshold matter, nothing in my analysis is meant to deny the importance of economic concerns. The highest inflation in 40 years, especially for inelastic goods such as groceries and household products, was certainly an important factor in the minds of many voters. That said, however, the roots of Harris’s loss are much deeper than the failure of her and Joe Biden’s economic policies.

Economics ebbs and flows, regardless of the party in charge. But this election signaled a seismic cultural shift. And it’s a shift that the left seems to be ontologically incapable of understanding. This is why the perspective of Harris’s loss, rather than Trump’s win, is a more useful posture for understanding what happened on November 5. Trump didn’t win because a majority of Americans enthusiastically agree with his policy positions. Rather, Harris lost because we have a visceral dislike for hers. Moreover, we are fed up with the relentless dishonesty of the legacy media that served as Harris’s propaganda arm.

So, while the Democratic party and its media messengers insist that Trump won because 51% of the population is racist, misogynist, and xenophobic—bless them—we can consider some actual factors.

Against abortion absolutism

First, unlike Harris, Americans are not pro-abortion absolutists. While a majority of Americans want some level of abortion access, none but the activists think that there should be no limits. Moreover, regardless of their relative positions on abortion regulation, a majority of Americans told us on November 5 that abortion does not drive every voting decision.

Consider, for example, the vote in Florida. Amendment 4 would have codified abortion on demand without any meaningful exceptions. The amendment failed, but only because a vote of 60% plus one person was required. A majority of Floridians—57%—voted in favor of the Amendment. But a similar majority—56%—voted for Trump for president. Many voters opted for the amendment but against Harris. (Similar results obtained in Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Nevada.) That tells us that some people who voted for Amendment 4 were not animated by abortion-absolutism, as Harris is.

Of course, I understand that Trump has backtracked on the issue, which might have made even a pro-choice voter more likely to vote for him. But this would not have satisfied the True Believers, who are far fewer in number than Harris thought. Harris ran as The Abortion Candidate. That’s one reason she lost.

Rejecting trans ideology

Another important factor for Harris’s loss, arising late in the campaign, is Americans’ decision to put the brakes on transgender lunacy. In the last few weeks of the campaign, Republicans ran ads in several states that highlighted Harris’s commitment to extreme trans ideology. The ads used an interview clip from the 2020 primary campaign, in which Harris endorsed using federal tax dollars for so-called gender transition surgery for prison inmates and detained undocumented immigrants. And they included ominous images of biological males competing against women in basketball and swimming. As a recent piece in The Washington Post noted, “Trump advisers could not believe how well the ad tested.”

It tested well because a majority of Americans are starting to realize how extreme trans ideology is; and thus how urgent it is to resist it. Harris’s pick of Tim Walz as her running mate illustrates the issue. Minnesota puts feminine hygiene products in boys’ restrooms, starting in 4th grade. Girl athletes in schools are forced to compete against boys, the only test of which is a boy’s assertion that he identifies as a girl on any particular day.

Additionally, a Minnesota law allows the state to assert jurisdiction over minor children from other states in order to subject them to mutilating surgery, puberty blockers, and cross-hormone therapy, even against their parents’ wishes. Americans do not want our daughters and sisters to be forced to compete against men. We do not believe that one can change genders. We do not believe that minors can meaningfully consent to mutilating surgery and chemical castration. And we do not want to be exposed to civil or criminal liability for calling a man a man and a woman a woman. Harris and her party do. That’s why she—and they—lost.