Member-only story

How Did Trump Win?

If you underestimated support for him, you’re not alone. Let’s dig into what unfolded this election.

Sarah Olson
7 min readNov 7, 2024

I’ll admit it — I didn’t think that Trump had a strong chance of winning the 2024 election. In Harris, I saw a poised and accomplished candidate who represented a more progressive America — one in which a Black woman could be president. One where trans lives and immigrants would be a little safer.

Sure, she wasn’t as progressive in her policies as I would have liked. I am often unhappy with the way the Democratic party handles things, and I think they’d be more successful leaning left than grasping at center. But up against Trump? I thought the country would choose sanity, point blank.

Like many liberals, I watched election night unfold with disappointment and surprise.

I don’t like surprises. Especially unpleasant ones. The first thing I wanted to do when I woke up the morning after and saw a country that had somehow chosen Trump again was understand exactly how this happened.

It’s easy to resign to answers like “America is just sexist and refuses to vote for a woman president” and “people are racist”, but I wanted to know — is it really that simple? What policies and issues could lead a voter to ignore how insufferable Trump is and vote for…

--

--

Sarah Olson
Sarah Olson

Written by Sarah Olson

Writing to make people care about important things. Based out of Portland, Oregon.

Responses (4)