Postmortems of the Democratic Party’s loss, running well beyond the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., are starting to come in from some of the party’s most perceptive thinkers.
And it was a loss across the board, not just this year. As RealClearPolitics’ Sean Trende has argued, 2024’s voting patterns were a “rehash” of 2022. Republican gains that year were less than expected, with then-President Donald Trump’s imposition of weak Senate candidates leaving that body 50-50 Democratic and the antics of Trump-favorite former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sparking turmoil in a narrowly Republican House.
However, the 2022 numbers, plus stronger candidates, produced better results for Republicans this year. Trump’s 50% to 48% popular vote margin over Harris was accompanied by an increase in his percentage from 2020 in every one of the 50…