The night of Nov. 6 marked the end of a tight presidential race for the White House, in which Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump ran two very different campaigns that emphasized different issues. 

Kameron Macrorie | @kameronmacrorietv

Ultimately, now-President Elect Donald Trump secured a return to office, with 295 electoral votes, surpassing the 270 votes required to win. In the months leading up to the election, 

While Trump’s campaign centered on the issues of economic security and immigration, pledging to reduce inflation and enact a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign leaned into the issue of abortion, emphasizing her position as the second ever female presidential candidate.

Ashley Muddiman, KU professor of Political Communication, spoke about Donald Trump’s strategy that led him to success. 

She said that it all came down to what issue voters deemed most important in 2024: the economy. 

“My immediate reaction is that people were making decisions about their presidential vote based on the economy, especially also immigration, but especially the economy,” Muddiman said. “And that’s an issue that the Republican Party was really leaning into, and communicated about. It was central to their campaign messaging.” 

Muddiman said that these voters tended to vote for Trump due to an association between the Republican party and economic security. This idea is explained by the political theory of issue ownership, which tells us that voters perceive each political party to own certain issues, and therefore be better equipped to handle them. 

“[Economy] is an issue that historically, Republicans have owned. So people perceive Republicans to own the issue of the economy, and they… perceive that they were doing better economically under Trump.”

Harris campaign’s core issue

On the other side of the ticket, abortion was another hot issue in this election, especially since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

Reproductive rights is an issue typically perceived as being owned by the Democratic Party– something that Vice President Harris embraced strongly in her campaign. 

“It’s been very highly important to… a lot of women in the last two years,” Muddiman said. “And so it makes sense for Kamala Harris’s campaign to focus on the issue of abortion. It is something that a lot of people who voted for her really do care about.”

Muddiman explained why, although abortion was an important issue to voters, it didn’t win Harris the vote.

“When we look at trends again over a long period of time, not just in this election, of what people seem to be the most important issue that they’re facing, it’s almost always the economy, and abortion tends to be lower on that list,” Muddiman said. 

Even though abortion didn’t play out as the most important issue in the presidential race, it still proved important on the state level.

Missouri voted to pass Amendment 3, overturning the state’s abortion ban. When the amendment goes into effect, it will allow abortion in Missouri up until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be at around 24 weeks.

President Elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated in January, beginning his second term in office. Muddiman reflected on his first presidential term and expressed concerns about his impact on the future of democracy. 

“When the Republican has never admitted to losing the last election, that is a major violation of the way that we run our elections. That is a major, major issue. And so we have elected someone who has felonies and did not admit to losing the election.”