Many people were outraged by the results of the 2024 presidential election and responded by expressing their rage at third party voters. They claimed that third-party voters were the reason why Harris ultimately lost the elections. 

However, I believe the outcome of elections greatly relies more on the campaign than the voters.

Although I understand where the frustration and disappointment regarding the results are coming from, most of this anger is misdirected. For one, if all third-party voters were combined with the votes that Harris attained, it would have still been less than what Trump received. 

Going into this election, we knew that many people would be single-issue voters, and that single issue for some concerned the situation in Gaza. Harris failed to adequately address the ongoing genocide, from turning protestors away to expressing her unequivocal support to Israel. She visited areas that had the most Arab and Muslim populations, like Michigan and Chicago, and made it abundantly clear that she did not want nor need their votes.

Most people vote on issues that concern them, so it is not a surprise that the same population she chose to neglect reflected that at the polls. Harris’ supporters emphasized that Trump would be far worse on Gaza, but this did not phase Arab and Muslim voters mostly because they felt like they have nothing to gain when it comes to either candidate.

Muslims only started to lean towards Democrats after 9/11 because they were seen as the friendlier party. But after the events that unfolded in Gaza under the Biden administration, they have realized that they would not benefit from either party. Voting for a third party was merely an act of punishing the Democrats. 

Furthermore, the Democrats did not display a strong campaign. They assumed that they would have a lead in this race simply because Trump previously lost an election, and many people favored a younger candidate. It also appears that focusing her attention on right wingers to gain their votes was not a good tactic.

There was a significant decline in Democratic voters in this election compared to when Biden defeated Trump in 2020. This may be due to the party slowly shifting to the right. For instance, Harris stating that she will make sure we have the strongest and “most lethal fighting force” in the world was bizarre, and something I doubt the average American is concerned about.    

Lastly, and most importantly, we do not owe politicians our votes. Politicians should be catering to us and listening to our voices. Democrats believe that they own minority votes, and this election proved otherwise. Voters are not to blame for the Democrats’ loss in this election because they chose to vote third party. It was the Democrats’ fault for not doing more to acquire those votes. 

Harris lost big across the board, and while I acknowledge that some factors including racism and sexism may have contributed to the outcome, it was not what cost her the election. People are realizing that they can no longer continue to vote based on the lesser of two evils. It is easy to look at election results and just blame the voters, but I believe most of the responsibility falls on the campaign. 

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