Washington Update From a DC Insider - November, 2024 Edition

[Mike McKenna is a long-time analyst/advisor/polling professional in Washington, DC. Also a former Trump staffer, he currently writes op/eds for the Washington Times. He sends out comprehensive state-of-play reports to a select email distribution, and allows me to share them with paid subscribers here. This is his report for November, 2024.]

From:  Michael McKenna

Date:   November 17, 2024

Re:      Thoughts about the election and what it might mean

            I am concerned that people have not read enough about the election, so I wanted to jump right in and add my two cents worth (literally).  These are initial observations on the election; I reserve the right to add context in the future.

Three things about the election

As always, the commentariat has expended a lot of intellectual firepower examining the election results from every possible angle.  As usual, most of that has been a waste of time.

Let’s make it easy and focus on just three things.  First, initial exit polling indicated that President Trump improved his performance compared to 2020 among young voters (by 6 points); among independent voters (by 4 points); among Hispanics (by 13 points); and among parents with children in the home (by 15 points).  He won the suburbs by 4 points, the same as 2016; and continued to erode Democratic support among the working class (taking 54%).