Why Kamala Harris lost, explained

OPINION: Did white women, Hispanic men or the Democrats’ messaging failures doom the Harris-Walz campaign? Or were we just crazy to believe this country was ready to elect a Black woman as president?

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

First, let me get this off my chest:

Y’all were dead wrong about Black men. 

Although I have written about this nonexistent issue as a journalist for multiple outlets and even worked with pollsters who studied the phenomenon, two weeks ago, a popular, unnamed X (formally Twitter) personality accused me of putting my “fingers in [my] ears” and pretending not to “see the misogyny” plaguing Black men who were refusing to vote for Kamala Harris. He sincerely believed that Black men would rather switch sides than vote for Kamala Harris. 

Just before I hit send on a thread dismantling this recycled false narrative, I received a call to discuss the issue on the “NewsNight with Abby Phillip.” Unprompted, the producer explained why she wanted me. It had nothing to do with the numerous articles I had written on the subject. She didn’t know that I’d taught the specific history of Black electoral politics as a professor or that I’d discussed the topic with at least four presidential candidates. She didn’t even care that I’d literally written a book that examines the misinformed narratives that shape public perceptions of Black electoral politics, Instead, she explained that she’d seen my initial tweet at the unnamed X personality (who is allegedly not Captain America).

“Oh, OK,” I said, as I deleted the X thread.

My mother would’ve been so proud.

Born with a genetic defect that rendered her incapable of letting shit slide, she relentlessly harassed her four children into taking personal responsibility. In the eyes of our world-class Tiger Mom, a mistake was a problem-solving opportunity and every failure was a chance to learn a valuable lesson. And, unlike most Black mothers, I’ve never heard her use the words “because I said so” — mostly because she never said so. Instead of telling us what to do, she responded to every question — even the simplest queries — with one of three statements:

• “Interrogate yourself”: To solve your problem, you must examine your actions and look within. 
• “Whose fault is it?”: To solve your problem, you must examine your actions and look within.
• “Are you asking me, or yourself?”: Ibid. 

While we eventually grew accustomed to my mom’s bespoke child-rearing technique, it could be exhausting. Sometimes my sisters and I didn’t feel like searching our souls to unravel the existential meaning of why I didn’t make the basketball team or how earning an 83 on a pre-algebra exam was a slap in the face to my six generations of my ancestors (It probably didn’t help when my I laughed when my sister whispered: “If the ancestors could do algebra, why didn’t they give you the answers?”) Fortunately, my sisters and I eventually found a way to instantly opt-out of the Dorothy Harriot Socratic Method by uttering a simple two-word phrase:

“Oh, OK.” 

To my mom, “Oh, OK” alternately means “I have seen the light and understand exactly what you’re trying to teach me” or “I think I figured it out.” But in the vernacular of the Harriot siblings, it translates to “please stop talking.” The two-word phrase can also be used as an implied punctuation mark that simply means: “I would like to end this conversation.” Despite my mother’s belief in the power of self-examination and logic, some problems have no answers. No one wins every battle. Anyone who is brave enough to fight a particularly daunting opponent must also understand that it is very possible they will lose. And sometimes, there is no one to blame. 

This is a story about Kamala Harris.

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As a graduate of the Dorothy Harriot Academy for Answering Questions, I understand why people are searching for answers to why Vice President Harris lost her bid to become the next president of the United States. It is perfectly reasonable to lament the fact that Americans would rather have a lying, cheating, morally and financially bankrupt white supremacist convicted criminal as the next president than a more experienced, more educated, more accomplished Black woman whose major fault is that she laughs kinda weird.  

Like my mother, we all want to live in a world run by logic and reason. More importantly, we want to believe that our failures are fixable and not an inevitability. And, as long as those answers make us feel like we are not powerless, they don’t necessarily have to be true. But, because we need someone or something to blame, every pundit’s and pollster’s post-mortem is an attempt to solve the same unanswerable riddle. Fortunately, I have a definitive solution:

Interrogate America. 

Who’s fault is it?

Maybe it’s white women’s fault. 

In an election where reproductive rights, bodily autonomy and the threat of becoming a childless cat lady were on the line, exit polls show that 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump. This is clearly white women’s fault. “This is the second time … that Democrats bet the House on white women and suburban white women,” said CNN analyst Bakari Sellers. “And this is the second time they’ve been left at the altar by suburban white women.”

Oh, OK.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, it would be foolish to believe the Karen confederacy would behave differently than they did in 2020 (55%). Or 2016 (52%). Or 2012 (56%). Or 2008 (53%) or 2004 (55%) or every time. The virtue signalers who proudly proclaim they “listen to Black women” obviously didn’t listen to Nikole Hannah-Jones, who literally said this would happen. But, of course, we forgot to listen to Black women. They may say they care about reproductive rights, democracy and equality but, as a collective, they are obviously unwilling to demonstrate their solidarity. They have shown us who they are every single time they step into a voting booth. White women do not want to dismantle the patriarchy. White women are the patriarchy. 

At this point, only an insane person would believe anything less.  

Perhaps Hispanic voters are to blame. Thirty-eight percent of Hispanic voters, including 55% of Hispanic men, voted for Trump. How could “people of color” destroy the “Black and brown coalition” for a candidate who has demonized, threatened and insulted them in every imaginable way?

Are you asking me or are you asking yourself?

Race might just be a social construct, but voting for Trump is part of an American tradition. Being labeled as a “person of color” has never stopped any group from embracing white supremacy. In fact, embracing anti-Black politics is partly how poor Irish immigrants and Italians who fled fascism assimilated into America. They might stand in solidarity when they need the benefits, policies and civil rights that Black movements afforded them, but they will easily cast aside the albatross of non-whiteness whenever there is a slight possibility to attain whiteness. Choosing white supremacy over solidarity is the most American dream. 

“With real American identity coded to race, being a real American often meant joining antiblack racism, and seeing oneself as white against the Blacks,” wrote historian Nell Irvin Painter in “The History of White People.” Painter added that Malcolm X and Toni Morrison always noted that the n-word was frequently “the first English word out of the mouth of European immigrants” before clarifying her point. 

“Actually, Morrison said it was the second, after ‘okay.’”

Some less-than-critical race theorists blame Harris’ loss on the Democratic Party’s lack of messaging or her lack of policy. It’s almost as if Trump wasn’t rambling about Hannibal Lecter and performing microphone fellatio during his speeches that had nothing to do with politics, policy or even voters. The people who believe Tim Walz was the wrong choice for a running mate don’t mention that JD Vance was even more unlikeable. 

If you believe Mehdi Hasan, Harris fumbled the presidential bag with one response during her appearance on “The View.” But, even if every single one of the 3.14 million viewers who watched that episode would have voted for the Democratic president, she still would’ve lost the popular vote. The morning after the election, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough shared the heartbreaking story of a white girl who was afraid to raise her hand in class because she might get canceled. Apparently, the greatest windbag in American media believes the Beckys and Belindas who have summoned white mobs by weaponizing their privilege for centuries are now terrified of Harris and her “woke mob.” There is also not a single shred of evidence that Harris’ reluctance to address the genocide in Gaza cost her the election but experts are saying it. 

But this is America. There must be someone we can blame.

The answer was inside us the whole time.

Losing, explained

I know what you’re thinking. 

You’re expecting me to explain why racism or white supremacy was the real problem. If I aspire to one day be as good at race-baiting as Joe Scarborough is at blowing hard, then anti-Blackness is the obvious answer. Well, my answer may disappoint your expectations, my experimental education and my ancestors’ algebraic equations.  

Kamala Harris just lost. 

There is no logical answer to why a convicted criminal whose brain is riddled with dementia, lies and stories about a fictional mass murderer can beat someone who is objectively better than him in category. No one can explain why voters who ranked immigration, the economy and foreign policy as their reason for voting for Trump would cast a ballot for the man who tanked immigration reform, tanked the economy and sullied the country’s international reputation. Harris was a more experienced, more capable candidate and she lost.

Then again, there is also no explanation for why people who claim to be pro-life love guns and hate universal health care. There is no reason why people who want to protect their reproductive rights would vote for the man who stripped away their bodily autonomy. There is no reason why people who love America want to censor its history. There is no logical reason why poor, uneducated whites are in love with a privileged billionaire who inherited everything he has. There is no reason why Evangelical Christians believe a corrupt, lying unrepentant sinner who can’t quote the Bible is on their side. There is no justification for why business owners believe a bankrupt grifter is good for business.

Well, maybe there is one explanation.

While watching MSNBC’s election coverage, I marveled at the panel of expert’s ability to not say racism or white supremacy. It’s almost like it’s an invisible monster that will eat them alive if they say its name.

And that is the point of this whole thing.

Racism is a terrible monster. White supremacy is America’s Beetlejuice. But, contrary to popular belief, if we are not willing to call it out, it will still eat us alive. That’s why the Steve Rogers of Black Twitter would rather believe the abundant information from Elon Musk’s algorithm — even when his beliefs are disproven by history, math and people who know things.  It’s also why the people whose pre-election predictions were 100% wrong are now flooding the public airwaves with their theories on what went wrong on Election Day.

Kamala Harris didn’t lose because white women, Hispanic voters and college-aged Karens collectively hate Black people. That’s not how white supremacy works. No one has ever asked the rest of the electorate to set aside their political preferences to vote for the social, political and economic well-being of Black Americans. But in an election where Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals united against an authoritarian whose only consistent message was racial animus, a majority of Americans were — at the very least — willing to overlook Trump’s pro-white campaign. Even if they voted for Trump because of their religious beliefs, concerns over the border or actual economic anxiety, the willingness to disregard racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and every other phobia and ism-based bigotry is how white supremacy actually works.

On Jan. 20, 2025, as America inaugurates Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, the country will celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. When King spoke at the March on Washington, he could not find a single example in the entire 187-year-old country where his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The only way the audience could envision racial equality was to hear about a dream. 

Standing in the same spot where Trump will be inaugurated, King noted: “If America is to be a great nation” his dream “must become true.” Despite what pollsters, pundits and MAGA will tell you, Kamala Harris proved once and for all that America is not yet great. And if we truly interrogated ourselves, we can only conclude one thing from the 2024 election of Donald Trump:

Black people are the only group in this entire country who are willing to make a dream come true.

Whose fault is that?

Michael Harriot is an economist, cultural critic and championship-level Spades player. His New York Times bestseller “Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America” is available everywhere books are sold.