Four years after he lost the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump made an unprecedented political comeback and won the election to become the 47th president of the United States. Defeating current Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump will be the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, following 22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland.
According to The Associated Press, Trump secured 277 electoral votes for the win by 5:35 a.m., surpassing Harris by nearly 5 million votes. His victory follows the Republicans clinching control of the Senate during yesterday’s elections.
Harris had not publicly conceded by press time at 6 a.m.
Trump supporter Juan Llano (25C) said that Trump’s victory signals to the Democratic Party not to “demonize” segments of the American electorate.
Emory College Republicans President Si Kai Feng (28C) said that he hopes a Trump presidency will improve inflation, quality of life and illegal immigration. Additionally, Feng hopes the next four years will bring decreased polarization in the United States.
“My biggest hope under Trump presidency is that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party can come together,” Feng said.
Llano said that Democrats should stop “obsessing” over issues such as abortion and stop calling Republicans “racist,” “misogynist” and “transphobic.” He added that Trump’s election shows that Americans want to return to “traditional values.”
While some students cheered for Trump’s victory, others are scared.
“It seems like in the end, the racist, sexist bigot is going to win again,” Young Democrats of Emory member Olivia Gilbert (26C) said during an interview with The Emory Wheel just after midnight. “It’s really scary to think about all the people in my life that this is going to impact so strongly.”
Gilbert said Harris fell behind President Joe Biden’s 2020 performance because she is a Black woman.
“Are Americans more likely to vote for a white man? Yeah,” Gilbert said. “That is a terrible reality, but it is the reality.”
Gilbert said this election leaves her feeling “hopeless.”
Ibrahim Jouja (22Ox, 25B) voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein due to her pledge to stop “the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.” Jouja characterized his decision to vote for Stein as strategic. As a Kentucky resident, Jouja said he believed the state will always be red.
Although Jouja does not approve of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the conflict in the Middle East, he said that he was hoping Harris would win. He called Trump’s win “disheartening,” adding that his presidency will be bad for Palestinians.
“Netanyahu wants Trump to win because Trump will support him and give him the agency to do whatever he wants,” Jouja said.
On his path to victory, Trump won key swing states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia, with the former setting up Trump’s victory. He then sealed his return to the White House when news outlets across the country declared the former president the winner in Wisconsin early this morning.
Trump declared victory in an early morning campaign speech, calling for unity going forward. He also claimed the American people delivered a mandate for him to govern.
“This will truly be the golden age of America,” Trump said.
This election cycle changed course when a poor debate performance on June 27 led voters to question Biden’s ability to serve as president. Biden dropped out of the race for re-election on July 21, conceding his spot on the ballot to Harris.
According to an NBC News poll released on Sept. 17, Harris led Trump by six points nationally. Despite Harris initially leading in the polls, Trump and Harris had been neck-and-neck the past few weeks.
In his win, Trump improved his popularity among Jewish, Hispanic and Black voters significantly since the 2020 election. Ann and Michael Hankin Distinguished Professor of Political Science Bernard Fraga said that Trump improved upon his 2020 performance due to Americans’ dissatisfaction with the Biden-Harris administration and their handling of the economy.
Despite her loss, Fraga said that Harris gained considerable ground after Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee.
“This is a story about Harris trying to make up ground that was already lost at the tail end of the Biden administration,” Fraga said.
Many conservatives have criticized Harris for seemingly circumventing the standard primary process, as Democrats voted for Biden in the Democratic primary. Additionally, many have criticized Harris for changing her positions on many issues since her unsuccessful run for president in 2020, with Trump joking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Sept. 25 that he should send her a MAGA hat.
Harris may have been affected by pro-Palestine Americans who endorsed Stein and Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Claudia De la Cruz. Both candidates garnered support from this demographic due to their pro-Palestinian stances. Stein received 610,955 votes (0.4%), including 18,095 votes (0.3%) in Georgia.
Michigan, where Trump led Harris by two percentage points in an uncalled race as of 6:08 a.m., was a particular focus of the “uncommitted” movement, which formed in response to the Israel-Hamas war. The movement did not endorse Harris but did urge its followers to vote against Trump. Third-party candidates in the state received 2.0% of the vote in Michigan.
Despite winning the presidency, Trump has significant divisions within his party. Prominent Republicans and former members of his administration have spoken out against him, including former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Additionally, over half the country has an unfavorable view of Trump, according to a Nov. 4 FiveThirtyEight poll.
Additionally, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) endorsed and campaigned with Harris, calling her “somebody you can trust.”
Both Trump and Harris attempted to win Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes. Harris visited Atlanta on Oct. 19 and held an event with former President Barack Obama on Oct. 24. Trump came to Georgia on Oct. 23 and Oct. 28. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner in the state at 12:58 a.m. This marks a return for Georgia as a reliably Republican state in every election since 1996 after Biden flipped the state blue in 2020.
However, a poll conducted by the Wheel showed that the Emory University community overwhelmingly supported Harris, with 83% of the 100 respondents stating they would vote for the vice president. The top priorities for respondents included abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights and the economy.
“It's time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said in a speech declaring victory. “It's time to unite.”
Correction (11/6/2024 at 5:45 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Olivia Gilbert (26C) as Olivia Young (26C).
