Summary
“It’s simple, really. We liked the way things were four years ago,” said Samuel Negron, a Pennsylvania state constable and member of the large Puerto Rican community in the city of Allentown.
Donald Trump achieved a decisive victory over Kamala Harris, capturing key demographics that traditionally supported Democrats. He gained substantial support from white working-class voters, saw a 14-point increase among Latino voters, and performed better than expected with younger voters, especially men.
Economic concerns, particularly inflation, were central to Trump’s appeal, with voters across states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin favoring his promises of lower prices and stricter immigration policies.
Harris struggled to retain support in diverse and working-class areas, as voters blamed Democrats for economic hardships.
I fish a lot. I fish with blue collar types and run in circles with fishing guides. I know a fishing guide who spends 8-12 hours per day on the water, something like 200 days per year with clients and many others just scouting so he can put clients on more fish. He has a part time retail job for the days he’s not fishing. He doesn’t doom scroll all day, and probably only gets a few minutes to scroll Instagram or Twitter in the evening before he goes to sleep because he’s up before sunrise driving to spots and loading his raft/gear into the water and pulling everything out to wash it in the evening. Sometimes he drives over an hour to fish, sometimes he stays overnight in certain areas. He doesn’t really read the news, he only interacts with a handful of other fishing guides and fishermen, he works two jobs, and that’s it.
I also fish with another guy in construction management. He’s on site most days, probably doom scrolls a little bit. He’s a relatively smart guy, savvy on niche musical genres and other really weird technical topics, but not educated at all and never graduated college. He’s kinda engaged but not really, and he does pretty well to filter all the political stuff out so he can focus on things that he’s interested in.
Harris proposed absolutely nothing for either of them. No tax proposals that would help them, no improvements to their health insurance (though both are probably through the ACA), no job/industry prospects, no financial assurances, just…nothing. All they heard were abortion, democracy, and “not Trump.” Neither of them even like Trump, and they find MAGA cringey AF, but they both said almost exactly the same thing to me at some point over the past few months:
“I mean, I’m fucked either way, so it really doesn’t matter.”
And you know what? They’re absolutely right. They are. Trump’s the only one who even tries to speak to their concerns, and for many people that’s enough.