# Why did democrats lose so many presidential votes in 2024 in safe democratic states **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [February 4, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851 "2025-02-04T03:26:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/109 "2025-02-09T05:09:43Z")
That is a tit-for-tat argument. I agree that, at the end of the day, the Biden Administration did not move us toward a solution. However, the next President should try to provide an actual solution, not just do something differently unhelpful. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/110 "2025-02-09T05:44:14Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The border isn’t a **crisis**. The border is institutionally dysfunctional, in that we do not allow for and process immigrants and asylum speakers with anywhere close to the efficiency we need to meet the supply OR the demand for workers in certain sectors. And the reason we don’t is, as far as I can tell, is the large number of racists who don’t want anyone at all to come in. And because undocumented workers are easier to exploit and cost less. Their civil rights can be trampled on since they don’t dare complain, and they pay billions in taxes without receiving services. ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/111 "2025-02-09T05:46:03Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > However, the next President should try to provide an actual solution, not just do something differently unhelpful. I agree, but neither of us expect that to happen. The immigration issue serves both parties best if left unsolved. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/112 "2025-02-09T05:47:22Z")
How does it serve the Democrats? ---
**Author:** ![Culling\_The\_Herd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Culling\_The\_Herd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Culling_The_Herd)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/113 "2025-02-09T05:52:52Z")
As a talking point. As a means to portray the other side as heartless and uncaring (cue the “But they are!”). Rational people understand both sides of this issue…and could solve it in a relatively short time. But it’s going to take a remarkable politician to build a consensus. If the Democrats were serious about solving the problem…ahh, it’s too late to start on this. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/114 "2025-02-09T05:53:45Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > How does it serve the Democrats? Money. Illegal immigrants are _very_ profitable, and the Democrats aren’t racist enough to sabotage themselves by trying to throw the immigrants all out anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/115 "2025-02-09T12:11:07Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > Why did Democrats lose so many presidential votes in 2024? Because incumbents worldwide, left and right, did really poorly last year. ---
**Author:** ![LouMa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/louma/32/19472_2.png) [@LouMa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouMa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/116 "2025-02-09T13:43:17Z")
Yes, your vote does matter on a national level indeed. You will find out within a few years when the US have morphed into a dictatorship by oligarchs. Every liberal vote not casted is a vote in favour of the Trumpian clan. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/117 "2025-02-09T16:19:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, his anti-gun position is a sure loser for the Dems. But he was also a writer and a businessman. I dont know why “never had a job outside of politics” is a bad thing= Joe Biden was a career politician. So was Harris. So was Bill Clinton. Gerald Ford. Nixon. LBJ was very briefly a teacher, JFK was in the Navy but after that- all politics. And so forth. Someone like Biden could at least counter the career politician stuff with his modest upbringing and the fact that he had a long track record of _winning_ elections as a politician. Hogg brings nothing to the table at a moment when the disconnect between the DNC’s strategists and average voters is at an all-time high. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/118 "2025-02-09T17:03:50Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > That said, the way in which D and R administrations deal with the border situation is quite different. Racist rhetoric, for example, is not moving us toward a solution. It depends on what your real goal is. If your goal is to have a functioning border control process than racist rhetoric accomplishes nothing. If your goal is to keep winning elections then racist rhetoric complaining about a border control crisis while doing no actual work on fixing the problem is a perfect tactic. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/119 "2025-02-09T17:06:16Z")
> [@songsoflovetrouble](#): > > Hogg brings nothing to the table Hogg brings to the DNC the presence (in the _vice_ chair position) of a representative of the Prog Left, who say what you will they **cannot** afford to just kick to the curb even if it needs some reality checking, and of an example of _an “influencer activist” type figure_ to reach out to new voters that grew up in the Trump Era. (A type of figure that has been dominated by the Right so far when it comes to success in moving people their way.) I can’t help but also be aware that _ **no matter who** _ the DNC would have selected to the spot they would have been accused of being a leftist radical hoplelessly out of touch with Middle America Values In Hogg’s case ISTM clear they went looking for a representative of the Prog-left-_young_ demographic for that seat. Now, though… if I were to indulge my more cynical side… I’d suspect they also wanted to find one whose big signature issue had _ **not** _ been DEI/trans/immigration/Palestine because they saw THOSE positions as the losers. So, Hogg it was even if most everyone in the mainstream thought the guns thing should have been given up for hopeless years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/120 "2025-02-09T17:07:42Z")
Besides, the Republicans don’t _actually_ care about immigration, they care about race war. Sealing the border won’t accomplish much of anything for them since there are still brown people on the other side of it. Until nobody on the planet is alive who isn’t white, they won’t have gotten what they want. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/121 "2025-02-09T19:50:54Z")
They’re not THAT stupid. They want to create (perpetuate) an underclass of people, “illegals”, people without any formal rights. Workers who can’t complain. Won’t strike, won’t unionize, never complain about overtime. You know, like in the good ol’ days. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/122 "2025-02-09T20:05:29Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The border isn’t a **crisis**. The border is institutionally dysfunctional, in that we do not allow for and process immigrants and asylum speakers with anywhere close to the efficiency we need to meet the supply OR the demand for workers in certain sectors. And the reason we don’t is, as far as I can tell, is the large number of racists who don’t want anyone at all to come in. So we have a compromise that pleases nobody. Right. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I agree that, at the end of the day, the Biden Administration did not move us toward a solution. Biden had to deal with a GOP House. Legally you cant do all the thing trump did with executive orders. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And because undocumented workers are easier to exploit and cost less. Their civil rights can be trampled on since they don’t dare complain, and they pay billions in taxes without receiving services. They are not paid under the table anymore- at least not significantly… The IRS put a stop to that, with employment tax raids and audits. But yes, they pay Social Security, etc taxes. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Besides, the Republicans don’t _actually_ care about immigration, they care about race war. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/123 "2025-02-09T22:27:14Z")
I think you’re framing the question the wrong way. Instead of focusing on why the 2024 numbers dropped, it’s more important to ask why turnout spiked by 3 million in 2020. The obvious answer is that people were fired up about Trump. If we look at the trends in the years before and after, voter turnout has followed a fairly predictable pattern, with 2020 being the exception. Here’s the breakdown of Democratic voter turnout in California: 2000: 5,861,203 2004: 6,745,485 2008: 8,274,473 2012: 7,854,285 2016: 8,753,788 2020: 11,110,250 2024: 9,276,179 It wasn’t so much a loss of votes, but rather that voter turnout in 2024 returned to more typical levels after the historic surge in 2020. You simply can’t sustain that level of energy over multiple election cycles. Trump never had a real chance in California, so many voters—knowing that their vote would count regardless—may have opted for a more leisurely choice, like grabbing a caramel frappuccino, rather than heading to the polls. Voters felt comfortable relying on the rest of the electorate to carry the day. ---
**Author:** ![songsoflovetrouble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@songsoflovetrouble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/songsoflovetrouble)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/124 "2025-02-09T23:43:45Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Hogg brings to the DNC the presence (in the _vice_ chair position) of a representative of the Prog Left, who say what you will they **cannot** afford to just kick to the curb even if it needs some reality checking, and of an example of _an “influencer activist” type figure_ to reach out to new voters that grew up in the Trump Era. The anti-gun lobby is a good example of “The Groups” that should be dsicarded, but I don’t think it’s part of the “prog left.” The leftists (correctly) recognize this as a culture war issue that they profess not to care about. The new young voters the Democrats are losing are not highly educated whites and, I predict, are not at all likely to see any reason to follow David Hogg anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/125 "2025-02-10T00:46:37Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > It wasn’t so much a loss of votes, but rather that voter turnout in 2024 returned to more typical levels after the historic surge in 2020. You simply can’t sustain that level of energy over multiple election cycles. Trump never had a real chance in California, so many voters—knowing that their vote would count regardless—may have opted for a more leisurely choice, like grabbing a caramel frappuccino, rather than heading to the polls. Not to dispute your essential point but California has had comprehensive mail-in voting and early ballot drop-off since 2021 as well as early in-person voting. There is literally no logistical excuse for someone who desires to cast a vote not to do so. I think you are correct that registered voters returned to normal patterns absent of a clear and present threat because voters have a collective memory of about the last six months (at best), and as evidenced in the 2020 Democratic primary, Kamala Harris was not a particularly appealing candidate even with mainstream Democrats, much less progressive voters who, despite all the accusations of how she is a ‘radical Lefitst’ and a ‘Marxist’ correctly identify her has being a mostly center right candidate who would do little to advance their interests. That people who didn’t vote, and some who voted for him, are aghast that Donald Trump is essentially doing exactly what he said he was going to do (so much for ‘take him seriously but not literally’) shows just how little attention people actually pay to what the candidates say, and even more what they have done in the past. As poor of a campaigner that Harris may have been (although she pulled numbers that despite being below Biden’s 2020 popular votes, were still more than every Democratic presidential candidate who came before her including Obama and Clinton), she at least actually went places and gave speeches, and even gal-palled around with the manifest blonde evil that is Liz Cheney under some thesis that this would appeal to non-MAGA Republicans and not piss off ardent Democrats while Trump just had rallies where he babbled on in stream-of-semi-consciousness so long that people just started wandering off and actually had one appearance where he said basically nothing while dancing to music for nearly an hour. Between Republicans (of all stripes whether they profess to like Trump or otherwise) being primed for fascism by three decades of propaganda of Rupert Murdoch and Newt Gingrich, and various people falling to the left of the political spectrum or just feeling unserved by anyone in public office for the last quarter century being so disillusioned that they didn’t bother to even mail in a ballot or pick a convenient time to vote early, Trump kind of won by default rather than this being a race between two finely tuned campaign machines running neck in neck with competing policy proposals and attention-grabbing ads and speeches. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/126 "2025-02-10T15:29:58Z")
> [@Culling\_The\_Herd](#): > > Rational people understand both sides of this issue…and could solve it in a relatively short time. But it’s going to take a remarkable politician to build a consensus. I’m intrigued to know what your _one easy solution_ to this issue might be. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/127 "2025-02-10T18:30:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > California has had comprehensive mail-in voting and early ballot drop-off since 2021 as well as early in-person voting. There is literally no logistical excuse for someone who desires to cast a vote not to do so. This is entirely accurate. Unfortunately, low effort does not equal no effort. So the choice of filling out and mailing an unnecessary ballot takes second place to binging another episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Kamala Harris was not a particularly appealing candidate even with mainstream Democrats, much less progressive voters I considered going into this in my first post, but decided it was too far out of scope for the thread. But since you’ve mentioned it… The democrats really had no chance in '24. It would have taken a live boy or a dead girl to defeat Trump. Dems started the campaign with Weekend at Bernie’s Biden and propped him up way after his expiration date (24 hours) and then swapped in the bucket of room temperature dishwater that was Harris. I didn’t pay too much attention to speeches and debates, but my impression was that Kamala couldn’t inspire water to run downhill, let alone get voters to polls. Some of you will disagree with that assessment, yet Trump is in the oval office. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851/128 "2025-02-10T20:41:27Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > The democrats really had no chance in '24. Due to ttwo things- well two and a half- Inflation, Xenophobia and the fact that the economy was great- which usually leads to a defeat of the incumbents. All over the world, Right Wing Populists rode a wave of inflation discontent into office. Biden was fine, and Harris was a great candidate. Both were far better than trump. But the inflation doomed them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-lose-so-many-presidential-votes-in-2024-in-safe-democratic-states/1013851.md?page=7)