By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-13 15:25:08 | Updated at 2024-12-23 23:22:20
1 week ago
Voters went to the polls on Nov. 5 to make their decision between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump with one overriding concern: The cost of living crisis.
The results of our latest poll lay out in stark terms how the Trump campaign dominated the issues that decided the 2024 election.
And as Democrats continue their inquest into what went wrong, it shows that abortion and the character of candidates were far less important to voters than border security and jobs, the areas where the Trump campaign was strongest.
'That's the campaign right there in a nutshell,' said conservative commentator and podshow host Matt K. Lewis.
'If you had told me six months ago that on election day, by far the number one issue is inflation and that abortion is going to be several places below then I would havd told you it was simply game over.'
Trump's victory stunned many observers.
Not only did he clinch victory four years after being turfed out of office and six months after being convicted by a jury in a New York criminal court, but he became the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote and swept all seven of the key battleground states.
To test how voters made their decisions, J.L. Partners asked 1006 people for the issue that was most important to them when they cast their vote for Trump or Harris.
J.L. Partners gave 1006 voters a list of policy topics and asked: Which issue was personally most important to you in deciding your vote for president
Donald Trump became the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote in 20 years when voters went to the polls on November 5
Democrats are now grappling with the reasons why Vice President Kamala Harris lost
Some 18 percent of respondents said it was inflation and the cost of living.
Border security and immigration was the second most popular response, with 12 percent.
Jobs and the economy was cited by 11 percent.
They were followed by some of the issues that Democrats thought would win them the election: Character of the candidates (10 percent), abortion (with eight percent), and healthcare (seven percent).
'In every election, really, the campaigns are jockeying to say my issue, the issue that I an running on is the one that matters most,' said Lewis.
'So in this case, this is yet another example of why Kamala Harris didn't have a shot.'
Most Americans (56 percent) concluded that Joe Biden would not have done any better against Trump. Only 24 percent through the 82-year-old would have had a greater chance of winning.
And when asked to sum up in a handful of words why Harris lost, several other factors came into view.
Voters used words including 'woman' and 'Biden' alongside 'economy.'
Harris voters when asked to share in a few words why they think Trump won the election and Harris lost, according to a poll conducted for DailyMail.com
The result is, that with ballots still being counted, Trump has 77.2 million votes, compared with 75.0 million for Harris.
And he has secured 312 Electoral College votes to Harris' 226.
James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners, said it was clear that the Trump campaign had owned the issues that mattered to voters.
'That is partly the burden of being an incumbent in an era where voters punish bad performance, but there is little doubt that the Trump campaign leaned in hard on the things that voters cared most about and were rewarded for it,' he said.
In polling before the election, Trump dominated in the key issues that decided the election.
Voters repeatedly said he was the strongest candidate on inflation, jobs, and the border.
