What's New
Billionaire Elon Musk, who quickly became part of President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle, reflects the political trajectory of many Americans and a demographic shift moving from support for former Democratic President Barack Obama to backing Republican Trump.
Why It Matters
Musk, who owns Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, donated to political campaigns over the past 17 years, according to Follow the Money, but was not as directly involved in politics as of recent. He previously described himself as a "moderate." On July 13, 2024, the day that an assassin shot at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk endorsed the GOP candidate.
Trump tapped Musk to co-lead a new government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Over the past week, Musk has used his platform to express his opinions and influence on House legislation related to government spending, leading some Democrats to call him "President Musk."
However, prior to backing Trump, the tech giant donated to and supported Obama's presidential campaign as well as other Democratic and Republican candidates.
Musk's shift from supporting Obama to Trump reflects broader demographic trends, with the Democratic Party losing low-income, non-college-educated voters to the Republican candidate in the recent election.
What To Know
Exit poll data from NBC for the 2024 presidential election showed a larger percentage of low-income, non-college-educated voters—a demographic that traditionally supports Democrats—backing Trump in the latest election.
The data shows that voters without a college degree, who made up 57 percent of the electorate, favored Trump, with 56 percent casting their vote for him. Among the 27 percent of voters with a total family income under $50,000, 50 percent supported Trump, compared to 48 percent who backed Harris. More than 153 million ballots were cast in the election.
The shift is significant from 12 years ago when Obama, the Democratic candidate, enjoyed significant support from working-class low-income voters without a college degree, while the Republican party candidate Mitt Romney had a solid base among wealthier, highly educated Americans.
Newsweek has reached out to several Republican and Democratic political strategists and consultants for comment via email and online forms on Friday afternoon.
The Center for Politics Sabato's Crystal ball estimates that based on American National Election Survey data, "about 8.4 million 2012 Obama voters backed Trump in 2016." However, the center noted that given the reliance on exit poll data and recalling previous votes and weighting, the number may be "exaggerated."
Pinpointing the number of voters who supported Obama and later voted for Trump is challenging due to a lack of exit poll data, age, and the risk of inaccurate comparisons stemming from differing numbers of political participants.
In 2012, Obama secured 65.9 million votes, almost 3 million more than what Trump garnered in 2016. In the 2020 election, which saw the highest number of ballots ever cast in the U.S., Trump received 74.2 million votes compared to President Joe Biden's 81.2 million. In 2024, Trump secured 77.29 million votes.
In addition to these demographic shifts, in the 2024 election, the Democratic Party notably lost support from Latino voters, particularly in swing states, as well as unions, both groups traditionally a stronghold of Democratic backing. NBC's exit poll found that 54 percent of Latino men voted for Trump.
The Teamsters and the International Association of Fire Fighters, in particular, declined to endorse any candidate in the 2024 race.
What People Are Saying
Data journalist Patrick Flynn on X on November 7: "Hard to overstate just how rapid the changes in US party coalitions have been. The Democrats are now the party of high education *and* high income voters. Just 12 years ago, the inverse was true. On these terms, the Trump coalition was closer to Obama 2008 than the Harris one!"
Sean Westwood, Director of the Polarization Research Lab: "Losing an election didn't change how partisans saw the other side but it did change how partisans saw their own party." The Lab's 2024 report found Democrats viewed their own party 5 percent more negatively after the election, while Republicans viewed their party 5 percent more positively.
Senator Bernie Sanders on X on November 6: "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them."
What's Next
Trump will take office on January 20, 2025, and Musk will formally begin his role as the DOGE co-leader.
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