Democrat-voting Americans say they feel reaffirmed in their belief that most of the United States would rather anyone else as president than a woman after Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Across social media, Harris voters shared feelings of disappointment and sadness that she will not make history as the first female US president.
But what seemingly resonated with hundreds of thousands of people were posts written with rage that a felony convicted, twice-impeached, four-times indicted man prevailed.
“The only thing America hates more than a rapist is a woman [sic],” an X user wrote racking up more than 600k likes and 100k reposts.
“[I don’t know] why I’m always shocked to rediscover how deeply our country hates women [sic],” another wrote.
Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton said she hoped Harris would do what she couldn’t and defeat Trump to break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” in America. But as the swing states fell to Trump one by one on Tuesday night it was increasingly clear that was not to be the case.
On the surface, Wednesday’s results mimic feelings from the 2016 presidential election when Trump defeated Clinton despite her being the favored candidate with more political experience and less radical policy proposals.
But there appears to be a much deeper sense of confusion and anger this time around given Trump’s eight-year-long political history is riddled with controversies, civil and criminal cases and accusations of wrongdoing.
In 2020, voters appeared ready to ditch the former president who refused to concede to President Joe Biden and incited a mob of violent disgruntled supporters to the Capitol as Congress tried to certify election results.
That motivation seemed to strengthen after Trump took credit for the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade in 2022 – sending trigger laws into effect across the country.
Harris’s campaign, which ran staunchly on protecting reproductive rights and upholding democracy, had hoped to follow similar results to Biden’s win.
But the message to Democrats on Wednesday morning was that it wasn’t enough to convince most of the country, especially men, to keep Trump in the past.
“When Trump wins twice against 2 separate women, but loses against another man, it’s not about the candidate, it’s about their hate for women,” one X user wrote.
The former president specifically targeted young white men throughout his campaign – entertaining influencers like Joe Rogan by joining their podcasts or YouTube shows for interviews. The so-called “bro vote” may have helped him greatly in winning the election.
