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Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, capping a startling comeback four years after his refusal to accept defeat led to a violent insurrection at the US Capitol.
His return to the White House deals a crushing blow to the Democratic camp, beaten by a convicted felon who is no less polarising and divisive a figure than he was four years ago.
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Only 44% of voters nationwide had a favourable view of Trump, according to an Election Day exit poll by Edison Research, compared to 46% who said so four years ago. 54% viewed him unfavourably, up from 52% in 2020.
And yet Democrats proved unable to convert the broad mistrust of Trump into support for Vice President Kamala Harris, failing to reassemble the coalition of voters that unseated the Republican four years ago.
That coalition notably included Black voters – historically a bedrock of Democratic support – as well as Hispanics and young voters.
While the majority stayed with Harris, Election Day surveys suggest some in those groups either shifted in Trump’s direction or shunned the polls, scuttling the Democrats’ hopes of holding on to the White House.
Harris, 60, was hoping to become the first woman president in the country’s 248-year history – and the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the office. Securing the minority vote was crucial to her chances of defeating Trump, who was guaranteed to win a majority of white votes.
The Republican had boasted during the campaign that he would get more support from Black men and Latino men than he had before – a trend that appears to have materialised, particularly among Hispanics, with economic concerns carrying greater prominence than in the 2020 election.
About 8 in 10 Black voters backed Harris, down from the roughly 9 in 10 who backed Joe Biden four years ago, according to a VoteCast survey of voters for AP. More than half of Hispanic voters supported Harris, but that was down from the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020.
