My six seasons as a minor-league baseball pitcher taught me that the toughest losses typically produce the greatest lessons. Giving up a game-winning hit made that walk from the mound to the locker room painfully longer than it typically felt, thanks to the cerebral collision between adrenaline and disappointment.
Then came last Tuesday. If the walk off the mound after a loss felt interminable, the flight back to Atlanta after an evening full of election coverage on CNN felt a lot longer than its two hours.
Credit: Geoff Duncan
Credit: Geoff Duncan
To state the obvious, having spent the past four years vehemently urging the Republican Party to move beyond Donald Trump for all the right reasons, last week’s result was not what I predicted or preferred. Yet, President-elect Trump deserves a tremendous amount of credit for orchestrating one of the greatest political comebacks in history.
By becoming the first Republican presidential candidate in two decades to apparently carry the popular vote, Trump didn’t just win — he earned a mandate. He grew his support among constituencies not usually associated with the GOP: nonwhite, working-class and young voters broke for Trump in greater margins than four years ago.
Most important, he won the suburbs, the deciders of elections where he lost so much ground in 2020.
So how did he do it? First, he tapped into the desire for change and the deep-seated belief that the country is headed in the wrong direction — which, at 73%, is its highest point in more than 30 years. Trump spoke to Americans’ frustrations with a southern border that felt out of control and inflation that was far from “transitory.”
His campaign also took advantage of a suspicion that the priorities of the Biden-Harris administration were out of step.
During my six trips across Pennsylvania for the Harris campaign, the airwaves were saturated with a Trump ad featuring footage of then-Sen. Kamala Harris voicing support for taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries for prisoners. The ad’s tagline, “Kamala’s for they/them, President Trump is for you” cut like a knife. In the campaign’s closing days, increasing numbers of voters brought up this issue in conversations in every swing state I visited on behalf of the Harris campaign.
The Monday-morning quarterbacks have piled on the criticism of the vice president.
Yes, she missed a golden opportunity to put daylight between President Joe Biden with her “not a thing” answer when asked about what she would do differently. While borne out of respect for the man who put her on the ticket in 2020 and stepped aside this year, the statement felt tone-deaf to those seeking change. The vice president also struggled to explain her change of position on key issues — fracking, Medicare for All, decriminalizing border crossings — in a way that didn’t come off as politically expedient.
By the same token, the die was cast against Harris from the beginning. She only had 107 days to introduce herself, separate from the status quo and outline a rationale for her candidacy, all while running against the most powerful political force of a generation.
A tall, if not impossible, task.
Many of the fundamentals were set long before Harris became the nominee. Consider Biden’s decision on Day 1 in office back in 2021 to sign a stack of executive orders unwinding Trump’s border policies. With the benefit of hindsight, my guess is most Democrats wish they could get that hanging curveball back.
Trump has proved he knows how to campaign and win in this political environment. Now he must govern in it.
His first tour of duty in the White House was tumultuous and void of wisdom-filled decisions most days. I am hopeful for a different direction in Round 2 but will remain skeptical until proved otherwise. We will know quickly which Donald Trump is planning to show up to work in January. His forthcoming Cabinet selections and key advisers will offer early insights into whether Trump intends to aim for the sky or the gutter.
Whatever he chooses, the tests will come early and often from home and abroad. Ukraine, Israel and a rickety economy are headed toward his desk like a freight train. These challenges require a sober mind and a steady hand to achieve positive outcomes.
Trump also racked up an impressive list of campaign promises: “inflation will vanish completely,” “secure our southern border,” ending the war in Ukraine in “24 hours.” It’s a daunting to-do list on par with completing three consecutive Hail Mary passes blindfolded. My hope is he will start laying out the details these challenges deserve.
On Jan. 7, 2021, only a handful of people could have predicted the outcome of last week’s election. Like it or not, America has spoken, and Donald Trump has earned the right to be called Mr. President again.
Let’s hope he’s up for the job.
About the Author
