A Race to the White House - Contrasting Campaigns

After the presidential election of 2024 which resulted in President elect Donald Trump, now is a good time to take a look at strategies that were potentially beneficial or harmful to the campaigns of both candidates. Which strategy did each candidate use and how did it affect the outcome for them? What are the contrasting differences between their campaigns and how did that add to Trump's victory over harris? 

In his victory, President Trump emmassed 76 million votes from the American people, and 312 electoral votes. According to usnews.com, the majority of registered voters consisted of white men from rural areas between the ages 45-65. Surprisingly enough, he did increase the diversity of his voters, but by very little. His promises for his presidency include to “strengthen and modernize our military,” “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion”, and “end inflation.” (donaldjtrump.com.) He plans to lower the amount of people who have immigrated into the country by having the biggest mass deportations in history. He also promises to protect firearms and religion, implement tax cuts that he will make permanent, and close the Department of Education in Washington D.C. (an organization responsible for establishing policy for, administers, and coordinates most federal assistance to education.) 

He spread his messages by canvassing using an app called 10xVotes, an app that tells voters where unreliable conservative voters in the area, and encourages people to go to their house and convince them to vote for Donald Trump. His marketing team is also incredibly active on the social media platform ‘X’ (formally Twitter), posting almost every hour. The posts span from voter engagement to talking about bitcoin, then to reporting endorsements from Elon Musk, one of his number one supporters. It's also important to mention his famous slogan: “make America great again”, or simply MAGA. This slogan has been used since 1980 during Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign, but gained major popularity in 2016 when Trump first ran for president. The use of MAGA allows him to spread his message by putting it on merchandise such as hats, hoodies, flags, and pretty much anything imaginable. The “make America great again" following has obviously grown, and with that it gained a negative reputation of being racist. His strategy to market to people in person, rather than online, definitely benefits him in gaining the support of the audience he desires, that being white people who are closer to middle age. 

Looking at Kamala Harris’ overall campaign, it can be seen she catered towards younger voters and lower/middle class Americans with emphasis on social issues. Some key points of her plan included tax cuts for middle class families, bringing down costs of healthcare, protecting and restoring reproductive rights, reducing gun violence, and attacking the opioid and fentanyl crisis. With this, she was able to gather votes from the majority of women ages 18-44 (leading over Trump 55% - 43% ). Harris was able to win over the majority of Black voters with 83% to 16%. She also won over most Latino voters, however, she did not hit the mark when it came to the mass of young voters (ages 18-29).

On Harris’ campaign website (kamalaharris.com), she explains little of her foreign policy positions compared to her position on social justice issues. Her plan for border control includes bringing back the bipartisan border security bill and signing it into law. This bill was introduced in 2023 and proposed increased border security and limits on asylum eligibility. Though no specific plan was mentioned, she made promise to “end the war in Gaza, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination” and at the same time, “stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and she will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”

  When it comes down to marketing their campaigns on social media, Harris took a unique approach on TikTok. The TikTok page, @kamalahq, went viral on multiple occasions. Viewers were shocked to see the official Kamala Harris page posting viral trends and funny memes pertaining to the presidential election. In a video posted taking part in the “Symphony trend”, a fake picture of dolphins leaping out of the water with a colorful background of rainbows and a sunset is shown with a text box that reads, “Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is a threat to our democracy” with the song “Symphony” by Zara Larsson playing. Another video shows a thirst trap edit of clips of former president Barack Obama to the song “Killshot” by Magdalena Bay and a caption that reads “period Obama.” Harris also made the advertising move of bringing trending artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Gracie Abrams on stage. This garnered plenty of support from people on TikTok. With this strategy, she attempted to advertise to Gen Z who are now starting to become of voting age.

The 2024 presidential race was influenced by contrasting campaigns from presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Trump's campaign relied heavily on traditional marketing tactics, like in-person canvassing and a strong, recognizable slogan. Harris used more modern platforms, such as TikTok and other social media in order to persuade younger and more diverse groups of voters. While Harris had success with women, Black, and Latino voters, Trump had major support from older, white, conservative voters. The overall outcome of this election was greatly impacted by the campaign marketing strategies of each candidate which influenced important aspects of a voter's decision.