Shifting Loyalties of These Voters Helped Power Donald Trump to Election Win

A realignment among Latino voters – and a smaller shift among Black voters in key swing states− helped catapult Donald Trump to his election victory over Kamala Harris as the Republican nominee expanded his support by peeling off voters from two core Democratic constituencies.

And the signs of a shift might have been there all along.

While Harris spent much of her campaign attacking Trump as a dangerous former president out for revenge and power, polling consistently showed voters preferred Trump over Harris to address their top priority: rising costs and inflation.

Although Trump didn’t win a majority of either group, he won support from about 13% of Black voters nationally and 45% of Latino voters, according to CNN exit polls. In the 2020 election, Trump won just 8% of Black voters and 32% of Latinos.

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Trump made those inroads thanks mostly to support from Black and Latino men, helping him overperform his 2020 performance in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit and other cities.

In a major shift, Trump won Latino men 54%-44% over Harris, according to NBC exit polls, after they backed President Joe Biden 59%-36% over Trump in 2020. Trump won 20% of male Black voters nationally against Harris, similar figures that the Republican nominee got in the 2020 election against President Joe Biden.

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Trump won blue-collar voters who lack college degrees 55%-42%, while Harris won more affluent voters with college degrees 57%-40%. In 2020, Trump won voters who lack college degrees by a narrow 50%-48% over Biden.

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Trump’s inroads with Latino voters went beyond key battleground states like Arizona and Nevada. In South Texas, which was formerly a Democratic stronghold, Trump flipped Starr County, which has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1896.

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In Pennsylvania, an even greater 24% of Black men supported Trump while 73% of Black men supported Harris, according to a CNN exit poll of the state. That was more than double the amount of Black men that supported Trump in the state in 2020.

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