By and large, it was the economy. For gen Z voters who care about the economy, they really broke for Donald Trump.
Abortion really dropped as being the most salient issue for younger people. I think that was the most surprising to me.
If you look at the youth vote in 2022 – and this is all young voters, not just men or women – 44% said abortion was the issue they put at their top priority. Whereas this fall, the issue was only 13% [exit polling shows]. That’s a pretty big cratering.
[mjh: I’ve read many think the abortion issue is resolved by the States. Fine if you don’t get pregnant in Florida.]
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. George Orwell
Although the vote count is unfinished, Trump is expected to meet the 74m votes he won in 2020, while Harris is on track to far underperform the 81m votes garnered in 2020 by her predecessor, Joe Biden. …
Where specific policy proposals were on the ballot, “red” US states passed progressive laws such as minimum wage protections, while “blue” states voted for conservative measures such as tough-on-crime initiatives. Abortion access measures won in seven states but fell short in three.
Updated figures likely to change again. Hard to believe that in an election that both sides described as existential, that BOTH candidates got fewer votes than in 2020 — 15 million people didn’t vote?
