In the final tense days before the 2024 presidential election, a quiet confidence began to take hold. Shockingly strong polls, massive early voting crowds, a visibly panicked Democrat Party — this time around something just felt different. It was as if the ground was moving underneath the country; not splitting apart, but bringing it together.
So big was this shift that when Donald Trump was declared the winner, it felt less like a victory for him, the Republican Party, or even the MAGA movement than it did the ultimate triumph of American unity over the craven politics of division.
Voters of all ages and races from all walks of life and all socioeconomic backgrounds in all areas of the country came together to deliver Trump 312 electoral votes and a resounding win in the national popular vote. He didn’t just win; he won everywhere, improving his standing in nearly every geographic area and among every demographic group.
He became the first candidate in 40 years to sweep the seven swing states and improved on his 2020 performance in nearly every state and 2,367 of the nation’s 3,243 counties and townships, according to New York Times data. He improved in urban counties by 5.2 percent, suburban counties by 4.3 percent, younger counties by 5.6 percent, and older counties by 4.9 percent. In counties with at least a 25 percent black population, he improved by 4.1 percent. In counties with at least a 25 percent Latino population, he improved by 9.5 percent.
This fueled a massive nationwide shift towards him that even hit the most heavily Democrat states. Although Trump lost New Jersey by 16 percent of the vote in 2020, he narrowed that gap to just 5 percent in 2024. In Illinois, he lost by nine points after losing by 16 points four years ago. New York moved 12 points to the right while California moved 10, using the most recent data.
Traditionally Democrat Voters Flocked to Trump
The primary reason for this was that traditionally Democratic voters flocked to Trump in droves. Exit polling showed that he won 46 percent of Hispanic voters, including 55 percent of Hispanic men. He doubled his support among black men, winning 24 percent in 2024, and got nearly a third of all voters who identified as non-white.
Younger voters, another core Democrat coalition, also moved dramatically to Trump. Forty-six percent of voters under 30 cast ballots for him, and so did 52 percent of men under the age of 45. Trump won middle-aged voters by a 52-47 margin and won seniors 51-48.
Such strong support across all age ranges and races as well as geographic locations is perhaps best explained by the country’s profound socioeconomic shift. For more than a century, Democrats fashioned themselves as the party of the working class, but that is clearly no longer the case. Vice President Kamala Harris won majorities of voters who earn less than $25,000 or more than $100,000 per year, but Trump won everyone else. Fifty-eight percent of voters earn between $25,000 and $100,000 and Trump won 52 percent of them.
Realignment of American Society
This signals a fundamental realignment not just of electoral politics, but potentially of American society as well. For much of the 21st century, Americans have been divided along racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality-based lines and believed the lie of systemic bigotry. To gain and maintain political power, Democrats split the populace into two classes: oppressors and the oppressed. Racial minorities, gays, and women were constantly told that they needed Democrat protection from the straight white men who would forever keep them down. It was no surprise that these men were the first to abandon the Democrat Party, but the speed at which other demographic groups are following them is shocking.
Black and Latino voters, it seems, have grown tired of living in high-crime, low-income neighborhoods controlled by Democrats for decades, while women of all races are rejecting the patronizing supposition that the only issue they really care about is abortion. Younger voters, especially men, have always had a rebellious streak and yearned to rage against whatever machine they could find. Academia, the government bureaucracy, corporate America, and Hollywood have always been popular targets and now all are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party as they mindlessly regurgitate left-wing dogma for mass consumption.
Loss of Trust in Democrat-Controlled Institutions
Voters of all ages have begun to see through this and are rejecting it in record numbers. Just six percent of Americans say they have a great deal of trust in television news compared with 56 percent who have no or very little trust. Only seven percent trust newspapers, while 48 percent do not. Overwhelming and obvious leftist bias in coverage has given way to outright propaganda, and America has noticed.
Yet the media is just the most visible entity under leftist control. Nearly all others have suffered the same collapse in public trust. Just six percent of Americans have a great deal of faith in big business compared with 42 percent who have no or very little faith. Eighteen percent have a lot of faith in higher education, while 32 percent have no or very little. The medical system, organized labor, public schools, and the criminal justice system all inspire trust in less than 20 percent of Americans and all are and have been under liberal control for years.
The pervasive and highly justified belief that all of these institutions have not been honest with the public or acted in its best interests has coincided with the catastrophic failure of the Democrat government these institutions have all worked to protect. Sky-high prices for basic necessities, rampant crime in the streets, and a flood of illegal immigrants overrunning cities from coast to coast prompted two-thirds of voters to say the country is on the wrong track.
Quite simply, those voters were tired of Democrat leaders failing them and Democrat-aligned institutions lying to them about it. To them, Trump didn’t just represent a change in America’s leadership but a change in America’s culture. They were tired of the media’s propaganda, academia’s indoctrination, big business’ “diversity, equity, and inclusion” agenda, the health care system’s corruption, the criminal justice system’s persecutions, and the entire American system’s surrender to the tyranny of the woke.
They don’t want to be divided along demographic lines; they want to be united in the values and principles that have always underpinned American society: liberty, equality, hard work, family, faith, and community. They long for institutions and leaders who promote these ideals instead of mocking them or claiming that they are illusory. That, at its heart, is why Trump won such a resounding victory. He and his MAGA movement represent a return to a country in which Americans may not have faith in institutions, but they will always have faith in Americans.
The appeal of this sort of country is universal, but there was a widespread belief that it was unattainable so long as Democrats kept Americans at war with one another. Trump exposed this deeply cynical ploy simply by being the dividing line. Democrats’ closing argument ahead of the election was that he is a fascist and, by extension, so too are his supporters. That isn’t an argument at all; it’s emotional blackmail. And Americans saw it for what it was.
Record numbers of them across all demographic and geographic lines rejected the politics of division and instead found common ground in a return to their nation’s founding principles. Trump’s win really is no more complicated than that. It does, however, represent a radical political and cultural realignment that could drastically reshape this country for decades to come.
Dan O’Donnell is a talk show host with News/Talk 1130 WISN in Milwaukee, Wis. and 1310 WIBA in Madison, Wis., and a columnist for the John K. MacIver Institute.
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