Associated Press
President-elect Donald Trump tapped into deep anxieties about an economy that seemed unable despite its recent growth to meet the needs of the middle class, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.
Worries about everyday expenses helped Trump return to the White House. In key states, Trump’s voters saw illegal immigration as imposing new costs on their communities. Many believed that their own financial well-being was at risk after the burst of post-pandemic inflation. More voters said they were falling behind this year than they did in 2020.
Trump made inroads among lower-income voters, middle-income voters and voters without college degrees, AP VoteCast found. All those groups appeared to put as high a priority — if not somewhat more so — on their family budgets than the worries about the future of democracy that motivated much of Vice President Kamala Harris’ coalition.
And Harris’ bet on rallying voters around abortion rights didn’t pan out as planned. She had relative strengths with college graduates and higher-income voters, but Trump held onto his base and also made marginal gains with some of Democrats’ core constituencies.
Voters who felt economically vulnerable were more likely to back Trump
Voters who felt more anxious about their economic circumstances supported Trump. The sliver of voters who felt more comfortable about their circumstances largely went with Harris.
Trump decisively won among voters who said their family finances were “falling behind” — a group that grew from about 2 in 10 voters in 2020 to about 3 in 10 this year. He also carried more than half of voters who were “very concerned” about the cost of food, the cost of housing, and their own health care costs.
Voters who were focused on the economy ended up breaking hard for Trump. Those who said inflation was the most important factor for their vote were almost twice as likely to support Trump over Harris, and about 6 in 10 voters who said the economy and jobs were the most important issue facing the country were in his camp.
The political divide between higher-income and lower-income Americans was stark, with Trump gaining slightly among voters whose household income is less than $100,000 per year, while Harris held steady with voters who make more than that.
Trump’s hardline policies on illegal immigration found their mark
Voters’ appetite for tough approaches to illegal immigration was higher this year — more than 4 in 10 said immigrants who are in the country illegally should be deported back to their home countries, up from around 3 in 10 in 2020.
That trend was visible even among groups that are generally more supportive of more expansive immigration policies. About 6 in 10 voters under the age of 45 said immigrants in the country illegally should be allowed to apply for legal status, down from about three-quarters in 2020.
Voters who said they personally immigrated to the U.S. were more likely to support Harris over Trump – but even among this group, about 4 in 10 said that immigrants in the country without documentation should be deported.
And concern about the impact of illegal immigration on individual communities was palpable. In Ohio, a state where Trump elevated the threat of immigrants by falsely accusing immigrants of eating pets, about three-quarters of voters said that immigrants who come to the U.S. illegally do more to hurt their state than help. The vast majority of Trump voters agreed with this view — about 9 in 10 — but so did more than half of Harris voters.
Trump deepened his support among voters without college degrees
Over half of voters reported not having a college degree. Harris and Biden both spoke at union halls and promised to remove the degree requirements that could block people without degrees from getting government jobs.
That messaging didn’t land as Democrats had hoped.
Trump ran just slightly ahead of Biden with non-college voters in 2020. The Republican made modest gains, earning a clear majority of this group, while only about 4 in 10 supported Harris.
In the end, voters chose to entrust him with the economy, even though half said he didn’t look out for people like them.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
26 comments
A day without Libturds
November 6, 2024 at 5:12 pm
Democrats only care about themselves
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 8:48 am
Name one damn of your bill that gonna go down,none they probably go up , because of Trump just being clinical insane
A day without Libturds
November 7, 2024 at 9:43 am
Try not to post word salad, you retard
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:48 am
Why are piss poor racist Trash ,maybe you should ask yourself that and not blame others
MarvinM
November 7, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Sad, sad, the poison you have taken.
Hate won this election, and it was hate spewed by your guy, not Democrats.
I said it. He won.
But be assured, Trump does not care about you. He does not care about me.
Trump’s an aging dictator-wannabe, who will cognitively decline rapidly, who is not respected by world leaders and the big dictators (Putin, Xi, and let’s add Netanyahu in there even though not technically a dictator) will play him like a fiddle. He will crash the economy within a year, maybe year and a half unless pulled back by Congress (which might happen).
Inflation will spike again if he is allowed to implement tariffs like it sounds he wants to. Again, Congress might actually stop him from doing too much damage. Keep you reps and senators on speed dial.
And just wait for the mass deportations and the massive cost that will have, not to mention the human horror. Can’t wait to hear all the stories of legal immigrants being swept up in it, families being ripped apart. Communities being destroyed.
And just because my side didn’t win this election does not make me wrong about that.
We are all in for a tough time coming up, so I suggest you rethink retirement plans, what assets you may have in what type of accounts, might want to shift to different investments or just stuff cash under the mattress. Hope Trump and compliant senate and maybe house doesn’t vote to cut medicare and/or medicaid! Keep you reps and senators on speed dial!
Kammy Is Toast
November 6, 2024 at 6:02 pm
Who said “It’s the economy stupid.” True words.
Fred S
November 6, 2024 at 7:01 pm
100% correct. James Carville, Democratic strategist to Bill Clinton in 1992.
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:35 am
Why are not rich and still complaining about living paycheck to paycheck,like you lived under Trump,if Trump economy was so good the first time,you should of been a millionaire,than poor trash
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:49 am
Words do make money piss poor trash
Fred S
November 6, 2024 at 6:59 pm
Shocking. You mean a bunch of so-called uneducated bumpkins actually understood that the social fascist policies of the Biden-Harris administration were a disaster? How could they possibly do that without a bunch of over-credentialed, breathtakingly mediocre self-proclaimed elitist processors and cogs telling them what to think?
I Am Garbage
November 6, 2024 at 8:11 pm
Well said Fred S. The arrogance and the elitist attitudes of some of the Democrats as they look down on many of us. Yet they embrace people like Cardi B with her garbage music, and the fake news media outlets. We saw how the activist moderators treated the Demo candidate and the Repub. We aren’t stupid. Many of us are very successful people.
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 8:49 am
Trump will not fill out his term, because of dementia
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:32 am
Why are you not rich like Cardi B,you claim she not smart,she smart enough to have people pay for lifestyle that she enjoys
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 10:01 am
Harris did not tell you to buy something,you did not need and could not afford,here are you some Powerball numbers 23,30,41,63,69 ,you gonna be so sick if these are the winners
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 10:06 am
Name on thing you are successful,you do not have one thing you can say about redemning about Trump
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:46 am
Why are you poor and not a millionaire
Tom
November 7, 2024 at 7:27 am
You are right and he did win, congrats on that, but … he’s all yours now so there’s no need to play the victim anymore. Roll your sleeves up, and go fix the border, the economy and start deporting immigrants.
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:36 am
Trump is not gonna do shit,but cradle the economy,like he bankruptcy his business
KathrynA
November 7, 2024 at 9:41 am
I just read in AOL that prices will rise due to tarriffs. He said all along that’s what he will do and put a lot of people who know nothing about anything in charge of everything. He is surrounding himself with a bunch of clowns and we will be the banana republic that he kept trying to say we were while unemployment was so low and wages had improved.
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:53 am
Trump bankrupt his companies he will bankrupt America
White Spiteful Devil Rapist Trump
November 7, 2024 at 9:52 am
Kamala is rich,she have thing about herself,that will make her rich the rest of her life,what about you that hate her , because you will always be piss poor trash
PeterH
November 7, 2024 at 11:11 am
Trump’s 2016 3-5% Trade Tariffs caused inflation and tanked American manufacturing! Americans complained about for four years while Biden cleaned up Trump’s economic mess. Trump has promised trade tariffs between 10% and 200% on imports that American consumers will pay for with renewed inflation and high unemployment. Voters will be getting what they voted for….. higher prices everywhere.
A Day without La Migra
November 7, 2024 at 11:20 am
Why is you poor MAGA trash not rich,by voting for MAGA and if you reading it,you should ask yourself,why I not ,answer this question poor MAGA trash
A Day without La Migra
November 7, 2024 at 1:32 pm
Piss Poor MAGA cannot talk about their own economy,I put others thing’s before money and these things,will make have money in the long run
THE SAGE EARL PITTS AMERICAN
November 7, 2024 at 7:07 pm
Good evening America,
Pay no attention to the “Wailing & gnashing of teeth” of the “Butt-Hurt Liberals Rageing” in the above comments.
Join me, America, as we “PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW, PRAISE HIM FOR ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW.”
Thank you LORD for re-instating Donald Trump as “THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD”!!!!!
THE SAGE EARL PITTS AMERICAN
Stocking
November 8, 2024 at 5:46 pm
People picked trump because of the lack of empathy to the medium working class just making it with self efficiency.
Without the extra burdens of a stricter censorship on your life and employment sanctions if you do not obey.
And blaming the other gender for all the shortfalls in n their lives while it’s the same gender helping to create that factor.
And it’s always what we owe the other one for the other ones problems.
But what I know I am just yesterday’s ________
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