AMHERST, NY (WKBW) — University at Buffalo professors shared their analysis of the historic 2024 Presidential election, examining closely how Republican Donald Trump toppled Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Two political science professors and a law professor from UB talked about the role of campaigns hours after Trump declared victory over Harris.
“There's a lot of narratives that will be written about this election,” stated Jacob Neiheisel, political science professor.
"It seems like Trump's ground game, even though people thought it was nonexistent, you know, actually was effective,” remarked Harvey Palmer, political science professor.
These political experts said Harris appeared to do everything right, but maybe we are missing how the Trump campaign used a whole lot of social media, leaving behind some of those traditional campaigns of knocking on doors to get the vote out.
“It appears that the Harris campaign focused heavily on attacking Donald Trump, sort of the anti-fascism arguments, questions and critiques of his leadership and character, and while there was some discussion of the economy, there were some who suggested it could have been stronger,” said Manoj Mate, law professor.
"Is this about campaigns? Is it a fluke, or is it really just about kind of the fundamentals of American politics? Is it about big factors that campaigns and candidates, by extension, have very little say over and very little that they can do to try to either shape or run away from?”, Neiheisel questioned.
All three professors focused on how those who supported Trump were focused on the economy and immigration as the major issues, while Harris focused on abortion, but it did not help her with higher voter turnout.
“More than 60% of the people said that the economy was not doing that well and 60, you know, 60 to 70% of those people voted for Trump,” Palmer replied.
UB students also reacted to the historic election, they told me they're feeling very emotional about the outcome of this race.
"I’m pretty devastated – to be honest,” said Jaeden Harrington.
"It's good for him, though, that he does his work and he's a smart politician,” responded Riley VanDeusen.
"I’m discouraged,” commented Anthony Taylor.
All three UB students said this was their first Presidential election.
"I feel like I lost. It was just so heart-wrenching for me to wake up and see that,” described Harrington.
“I was one of those people who was like — 'I’m never going to vote or anything — I don't want anything to do with government' but something about this election just really made me want to vote,” reflected Taylor.
These young voters and the UB political experts said they fear Trump could rule as an authoritarian.
“The concern now is, because the staff, who are likely to be in this administration, will be less likely to serve as checks on the president as they were in the previous administration. I think that that has to raise some concerns about the possibility of overreach,” Mate noted.
“There's no incentive to behave at that point,” responded Neiheisel.
“It's probably more likely that there will be institutional changes that consolidate power because the election outcome was more decisive than I think a lot of people expected,” Palmer explained. “Trump alone can't change the system. He's going to need support from the legislature.”
The UB political experts also noted Trump won with first-time voters and on the gender front.
