Exit poll results for the U.S. presidential election are in and, unsurprisingly, Black people proved we show up for the Democratic Party… again. Unfortunately, we bore the brunt of the load as no other groups voted above 70% for Vice President Kamala Harris. Black people, and Black women in particular, don’t make up enough of the electorate to shoulder the weight of winning elections for the Democratic Party. Non-Latine Black Americans make up of 12.1% of the total population and 13% of the electorate. Meanwhile, white Americans are 57.8% of the U.S. population and 67% of the electorate. Still, Kamala Harris received 10 million less voters than Biden did four years ago (that outcome can’t be blamed on one or two counties in Michigan). Exit poll results offer some insight into who voted, and how.
It’s first important to note that exit polling is not a perfect science. Edison Research conducted the poll that most people are citing and they talked to just over 20,000 voters across 10 states and over 600 polling sites as a microcosm of how voters across the country likely voted. Thus, the poll doesn’t account for regional differences or for the ways diversity manifests differently from state to state. For example, though the poll attempted to capture how Indigenous Americans voted, Edison only heard from 229 Native voters and didn’t talk to any voters from polling sites on tribal land. AP VoteCast connected with 120,000 voters, which is a larger sample group but represents an imperfect cross section of the electorate. Taking these exit polls with a grain of salt, they do reveal important trends that can’t go ignored.
Both Edison and AP Vote Cast report 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump this election. Again. The majority of women of color voted for Harris with Black women voting for Harris at the highest rates (89-91%). Approximately 60% of Latinas voted for Harris though they were only 6% of all voters. Men generally turned out for Trump with the exception of Black men, three-quarters of whom voted for Harris. Both Latino and white men voted for Trump regardless of age or type of community (urban, suburban, or rural). Asian Americans slimly turned out for Harris, according Edison, and the Native American voters they polled voted for Trump at a rate of 65%. These are a lot of numbers which translated to a landslide win for Trump even in racially diverse districts. Dozens of counties that Biden won just four years ago turned sharply towards the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s vision for America.
White supremacy definitely shaped this election but if we believe it’s the only motivator for voters, we ignore just how effective the far-right has become at making certain people feel seen and heard.
In the blue state of New York, 3.4 million people voted for Trump and more than 300,000 of those Trump voters live in boroughs like The Bronx and Queens – Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s district. The young Congresswoman took to social media to ask her followers if any of them voted for both her and Donald Trump to explain why. A range of answers flooded in. “It’s real simple… Trump and you care for the working class,” one person replied. “Trump is going to get us the money and lets men have a voice,” another began, “You’re brilliant and have amazing passion.” “Voted Trump, but I like you and Bernie,” one said. “I don’t trust either party establishment politicians.” The response that stood out to me the most was this: “I feel like Trump and you are both real.” Political campaigns have centered around marketing to people instead of listening and responding directly to their concerns.
White supremacy definitely shaped this election but if we believe it’s the only motivator for voters, we ignore just how effective the far-right has become at making certain people feel seen and heard. The bigotry was on full display and yet something… resonated. Scrolling through my own Facebook newsfeed on the day after the election, I was shocked to see so many Black and brown people celebrating what a Trump economy might bring them. My gut instinct was to block and unfriend but I realized it wouldn’t change the outcome. The reality is that voting for Trump is what so many chose to do with their civic liberties. Finding out why before the midterm elections is imperative.
In the last week or so since the election, there has been a lot of pointing fingers. Black women are mad at the world. We tried to bring fascism to its knees with an experienced and charismatic leader representing the antithesis of MAGA Republicans. And still America chose the bumbling idiot. Many are vowing to only fight for other Black people in the coming years, after feeling betrayed by the low turnout from white voters and non-Black people — which is understandable but unsustainable. Harris voters are angry at third party voters. Third party voters are angry at the system altogether and the idea that standing against crimes against humanity makes them hindrances to democracy. And then there are Trump voters of all races and genders excitedly gloating.
The metaphorical “sides” of the aisle are more blurred than our echo chambers would like us to believe and yet we are becoming less capable of understanding we still have more in common than we think. Most Americans are voting from places of fear of what the future may hold for ourselves and our loved ones. Whatever guides that fear can be all-consuming — especially when fascism is knocking at the door. Our fear turns into disdain for anyone misaligned with the calculations we’ve made for our future, particularly when the people who share our identities seemingly vote against their interests. But what if we are assuming too much about one another’s interests? What if we don’t understand each other as well as we think we do?
Writer and activist Raquel Willis tweeted “It’s increasingly starting to seem like presidential elections serve more to damage coalition-building than strengthen it.” For the last several months, conservatives have forced fissures and rifts between progressive spaces and turned earnest people on one another because of tactical disagreements. Harris voters and pro-Palestine supporters have been forced into adversarial positions as people make choices they feel bring us closer to a better America. The figurative umbrella of the Left has been turned upside down and the water is getting inside. This isn’t about holding hands with white nationalist Trump supporters who wish us harm. Forget them. It’s about refusing to break our bonds of resistance when the battle of the next Trump presidency is just beginning. What does it look like to dust ourselves and fight side by side as a united progressive movement? How do we apologize, admit we deserved more, and heal?
Most Americans are voting from places of fear of what the future may hold for ourselves and our loved ones. Whatever guides that fear can be all-consuming — especially when fascism is knocking at the door.
“I am committing myself to going harder on systems, on institutions, on outdated norms, and being as soft as possible with the individual humans I interact with and speak about,” Dr. Avriel Epps wrote in an Instagram post. Dr. Epps is a Harvard-educated AI and human development researcher as well as the cofounder of AI 4 Abolition. “We are in a cycle of escalation right now and we contribute to it by isolating ourselves and alienating those we disagree with in real life, only to take out our frustrations on them online,” Dr. Epps encouraged. On social media, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez reiterated a similar sentiment. “This is why I say that we should be signing up to knock on doors and be on the phones,” AOC said, affirming the need to talk to real people without depending on surrogates to reach them via mass media and expensive campaign rallies.
Despite best efforts and over a billion dollars spent by Democrats, the Republican Party is becoming more diverse than it’s been in nearly a century — despite a track record of violence and disenfranchisement that uniquely hurts BIPOC and LGBTQ people. In the days since being elected, Trump has already announced plans for reparations to white people impacted by “reverse racism” and to appoint inexperienced bigots like Elon Musk to key federal positions. Republicans have already won the White House and Congress. Will we hand them our coalitions and ability to see and care for one another as well? We are all in desperate need of more empathy. As Angela Davis said, “walls turned sideways are bridges.” With another Trump inauguration looming, let’s pull one another closer than ever before and destroy all barriers to our solidarity. If silos led us here, only true community can bring us out.
Brea Baker is a writer, organizer and author of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft & The Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership. In her opinion column for Unbothered, she shares perspectives on the U.S. presidential election.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
How Do We Survive Another 4 Years Of Donald Trump?
Why Did So Many Latines Vote for Donald Trump?
Abortion Rights Won In 7 States Last Night
This article was originally published on refinery29.com.