Summary

Trump’s popular vote share has fallen below 50% to 49.94%, with Kamala Harris at 48.26%, narrowing his margin of victory.

Trump’s share of the popular vote is lower than Biden’s in 2020 (51.3%), Obama’s in 2012 (51.1%) and 2008 (52.9%), George W. Bush’s in 2004 (50.7%), George H.W. Bush’s in 1988 (53.2%), Reagan’s in 1984 (58.8%) and 1980 (50.7%), and Carter’s in 1976 (50.1%).

The 2024 election results highlight Trump’s narrow victory and the need for Democrats to address their mistakes and build a diverse working-class coalition.

The numbers also give Democrats a reason to push back on Trump’s mandate claims, noting most Americans did not vote for him.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    58% of the deciding power with just under 50% of the vote?

    This might be a catalyst for states to sign the NPVIC. Pennsylvania started the process to sign on this week in legislature.

    Perhaps in the past, swing states enjoyed the attention they got.

    Now, I have a feeling voters are frustrated from getting way too much attention with mailers, calls, texts, illegal lotteries, news stories, events. As a bonus, voters in swing states are and will be getting outsized blame for electing the returning rapist-in-chief. Anyways a potential silver lining in the impending sea of shit.

  • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    It sucks that the Dems don’t bother with a recount, even if it’s still the same result. Republicans wanted recounts just about everywhere they could in 2020. Instead they just say “welp, looks like we lost. Here’s the keys to the kingdom.” Do some due diligence and have a damn recount.

  • mercano@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The fact that a majority of voters did not want Trump to win makes me simultaneously feel happy (that I’m not surrounded by idiots) and more depressed (that the Electoral College has screwed us AGAIN!)

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 hours ago

      It’s a lack of majority not a lack of plurality. Harris is still trailing Trump by 3m votes or so (and 1.6%), Trump is just not above 50% after further votes have been counted. So this isn’t an electoral college steal

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Yeah, but even if Kamala wins the popular vote, this is going to be the closest a republican has gotten in…

        Decades?

        Maybe longer?

        But the DNC is going to latch onto this and try to claim if they had moved just a little more right they’d have won.

        Regardless of what happens, the DNC will always say the answer is moving to the right.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          7 hours ago

          Regardless of what happens, the DNC will always say the answer is moving to the right.

          This isn’t borne out by trending or statements. What kind of crystal ball are you smoking?

          • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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            7 hours ago

            Two examples: ran on being humane to migrants and continued title 42 three years into the Biden term and proposed a draconian new immigration law.

            Ran on reforming the police, flooded them with money.

    • demesisx@infosec.pub
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      5 hours ago

      FPTP should get FAR more attention as the culprit for this situation. Sure, the electoral college caused Kamala to lose (or whatever) but if we had a true democracy, there wouldn’t be only two possible parties to choose from.

      FPTP

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        22 minutes ago

        Typical liberal cope.

        “We KINDA won!”

        Face it y’all. Democrats and liberals are a LOSING block. FAILURES.

        I’ll continue to vote straight D, because it’s the only choice I got. Fucking losers and failures.

      • arandomthought@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        Yeah does it really make that much of a difference in terms of “being surrounded by idiots” whether 51% of the people around you are idiots or 49%? Sure, I’d prefer the 49% scenario, especially if there’s an election happening, but you’re still surrounded by idiots.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          The fact that Trump could get elected at all, let alone twice, is proof that there’s too many idiots to want to participate in normal society

    • testfactor@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      He still had more of the popular vote than Harris, it was just they were both less than 50% due to 3rd party votes. So neither had a “majority” of the vote.

      So he still would have won, even under a purely popular vote based system.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Another thing it means is that if we had ranked choice voting, those 3rd party votes would be the deciding factor in who won the presidency.

        • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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          3 hours ago

          If we had ranked choice and got rid of the electoral college*

          A lot of those third party votes are in solid red or blue states where it wouldn’t matter. Also a lot of the third party votes this time was for rfk and the libertarian Oliver, who wouldve probably went to trump so the outcome would probably be the same.

  • testfactor@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    To be clear, because the headline I think is a bit misrepresentative. Trump still has over a million more votes than Harris. He just no longer has over 50% of the votes cast.

    It’s like 49% Trump, 48% Harris, 3% Other. So Trump still won the popular vote.

    This isn’t a “the Electoral College screwed us” situation. He still “won” the popular vote. He just didn’t win a “majority” of the votes cast.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Yep. And as much as I’d like to blame 3rd party voters, even if they all voted Harris to giver her the majority, she’d have still lost due to electoral college.

      I will absolutely blame the non-voters though. And the 3rd party voters still get part of the blame.

  • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Wasn’t it something like he only gained about 500,000 votes from the last primary election? The reason the Democrats lost was because they lost 10,000,000 due to people just straight up not voting for Kamala by either going 3rd party, switching to Trump, or abstaining. In my opinion it wasn’t really Trump’s popularity that won him the election but more of just the Democrats lack of popularity.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 hours ago

      Democrats lack of popularity, coupled with active voter suppression tactics in numerous states, four straight years of misinformation campaigns designed to decrease voter turnout and/or drive them to third parties maliciously, and most critically, no more covid lockdowns allowing people the free time to vote. People working full time wage jobs that are most likely to vote more blue are, quite intentionally, not financially allowed to vote in person due to work scheduling; 2020 was an outlier year.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        7 minutes ago

        OR, wait for it, it might be because Democrats absolutely suck at winning elections. It might be because no one likes them. And all that might be because they’re total fucking failures at governing.

        “But muh libs have done such wonderful things and the GOP is the devil!”

        SELL it to us then.

        “But LOGIC!”

        No one votes on logic. Sales class, before lunch, “People buy on emotion.”

        Your post is exactly why libs so always fucking lose. Jesus, just say it out loud, “We lost because my pussy hurts!”

    • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      Actually, Harris did nearly as well or better than Biden in the only states that matter, the swing states. In the ones the Harris didn’t beat Biden’s vote total, even if she had gotten it Trump would have still won the electoral college.

      In other words, no it’s not because dems didn’t vote.

  • 7112@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The big problem is we all think someone else will solve this issue. All the investigations, congress, and even the public… they did nothing.

    Run for office. Start small. Kick them out of the school boards follow their playbook and work bottom up.

  • WatDabney@sopuli.xyz
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    8 hours ago

    Since when has reality made any difference at all to Trump?

    He doesn’t believe he has a mandate because the numbers add up that way, so he’s not going to believe he doesn’t because they don’t. He believes he has a mandate because he’s the bestest and smartest and most perfect president ever in the history of ever. And he’s never going to stop believing that.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      8 hours ago

      It makes a big difference to him, personally. He’s a walking ego, and the fact that the American people aren’t in a majority behind him will gnaw at him.

      It means fuck all in any practical way. At best, the country isn’t quite as giving into fascism as we thought. That’s the best I got, and it ain’t much.

  • NeoToasty@kbin.melroy.org
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    8 hours ago

    Democrats need to stop wasting time by challenging the results of this election in any way. We’re going to be under the control of a party that waives facts and truths so it doesn’t matter.

    The Democrats need to be re-worked entirely. The reason why they failed this year is like how they failed in 2016. They focused on the whole “TRUMP BAD!” wagon and expected that to carry them. That’s great…as a platform. But it was all that they mostly had. Platforms aren’t any good if you can’t build off from them and that’s what the Dems didn’t do.

    I know and understand that if Harris had a full year of campaigning instead of a handful of months, maybe she could’ve had a better shot and a better understanding of how she’d turn this country around. But, she fell into the same trap as Clinton did and that’s why she lost. She wasn’t the entire reason, the Dems had a part in that too collectively, but a part of the reason.

    You cannot just scream “THAT MAN BAD” without backing it up and without promise of how you’ll do things right - for everyone. Emphasis on ‘everyone’ because there apparently are some groups that Harris and the Dems failed on and lost their votes. That’s important.

    Right now, Democrats need to seriously reconstructure.

    And I hope that within the first year of this fascist’s term of how much shit they’d have to sit, watch and fight over on. That by the 2026 mid-terms, that they get their heads out of their fucking asses.

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      7 hours ago

      there apparently are some groups that Harris and the Dems failed on

      That’s every group except for republicans, who voted Trump anyway.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      7 hours ago

      I know and understand that if Harris had a full year of campaigning instead of a handful of months, maybe she could’ve had a better shot and a better understanding of how she’d turn this country around.

      I think she’d have dug herself into a deeper hole, if anything. That’s what she did with the time she had available.