Liberals Completely Misunderstood Voters Concerns About Democracy

The Democratic Party greatly misunderstood voter concerns about democracy, exit polls show.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who conceded the election to former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, and Democrats had vigorously campaigned on the issue of democracy, albeit less than President Joe Biden did, pointing to Trump as the greatest threat to U.S. democracy.

When early exit polls found it to be a top voting issue, liberals took this as a sign that it could be good news for Harris.

But Trump voters made up a greater share of those who described American democracy as "somewhat threatened," 50 percent, or "very threatened," 51 percent, CNN's exit polls show. Comparably, Harris voters accounted for 49 percent of those who said democracy in the U.S. is "somewhat threatened," and 47 percent said "very threatened."

"Democrats significantly overplayed their hand in the 2024 election with the democracy issue," GOP strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek. "Most voters, except die-hard Democrats and a few but vocal Republicans, believe that Donald Trump was a threat to democracy."

"The Democrat party leadership, in conjunction with the elite media, have tried to sell this anti-Trump storyline to the American people since Trump was elected president in 2016," Klink said.

Voters at a polling site in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on October 17. Exit polls showed that more Trump voters described democracy in U.S. as threatened than Harris voters. Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

Harris supporters were still more likely to rank democracy as their most important issue, 80 percent, compared to 18 percent of Trump voters. The second biggest issue for Harris voters was abortion, 74 percent, while Trump voters pointed to immigration as their number one issue, 90 percent, and the economy, 80 percent.

However, Trump voters' reasoning for being concerned about democracy is different from the anxieties Democrats appealed to. While liberals see the former president as the man working to undo democracy, MAGA supporters are still brewing about election fraud claims from four years ago, Spiro Amburn, a Georgia-based Republican strategist, told Newsweek.

At the same time, Democrats hoped that all their voters would be willing to cast their ballot for democracy, not realizing that many working-class Americans, even the liberal ones, are more worried about the economy and inflation.

"Many Trump voters still believe the 2020 election was illegitimate and that the federal government is a threat to personal freedom," Amburn said. "Working class Democrats were more concerned with the cost of living under the Biden administration as compared to the Trump administration."

"Democrats misunderstood their voters and did not connect with them," he said.

Carter Wrenn, a veteran Republican strategist who managed Ronald Reagan's campaign in North Carolina during the GOP primaries, agreed that "democracy" likely means different things to Trump and Harris voters.

"What the Harris campaign was focused on is the peaceful transfer of power. They see the stolen election claims as a threat to democracy." Wrenn told Newsweek. "When you ask a Trump Republican or Republican in general about a threat to democracy, I think they may be thinking of illegal immigration or wokeness."

Klink argued that Trump voters who were concerned about democracy "interpreted Democrats' efforts at censorship, lawfare, open borders and progressive policies to be an equal or greater threat to democracy."