The 2024 election was full of drama, surprises, and miscalculations. The Harris-Walz campaign most certainly bears a huge amount of responsibility for that, as they led so many people into believing that they actually had a chance. Plenty of people had to know better, but still put their reputations on the line trying to turn Kamala Harris into a winner.
Among the fallout, three high-profile figures stand out for severely damaging their reputations. Each played a significant role in shaping the narrative of the election, and each left it with their credibility in shambles.
Barack Obama: A Legacy Destroyed
Barack Obama entered the 2024 election as one of the most respected figures in the Democratic Party. This man could literally do no wrong according to his party. But his decision to back Kamala Harris with such fervor in the primary, despite previously calling for an open contest, marked a serious misstep—especially when he had to know she was doomed.
After all, he was one of the few Democrats who didn’t initially endorse her.
Obama neverthless aggressively campaigned for Kamala, but it wasn’t enough to energize the base or close the enthusiasm gap. Instead, it exposed his diminishing influence within the party. Kamala not only failed to connect with voters but also suffered humiliating defeats in swing states where Obama’s star power was supposed to shine. Her loss wasn’t just her own—it was a significant blow to Obama’s legacy as a political force. Now, the former shining star of the party has lost his shine.
“It’s no longer the party of Obama,” Obama’s former Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, told the Washington Examiner.
Indeed, it isn’t.
Ann Selzer: The Pollster Who Missed
For years, Ann Selzer was the gold standard of polling. Her Iowa polls were uncannily accurate. This year, however, she stumbled badly. Selzer released a poll showing Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in Iowa by three points. The final result? Trump won the state by a jaw-dropping 13-point margin.
Selzer’s error wasn’t just a personal embarrassment—it became a symbol of the polling industry’s broader failure in 2024. Her brand, once synonymous with reliability, is now tainted, and she’s retiring from the industry in shame.
"She destroyed her credibility to help stop Trump," Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports’ head pollster, told PJ Media after the election. "And she was actually a damn good pollster.”
She announced her retirement from polling nearly two weeks after the election. She said it was planned over a year ago, but... come on...
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Allan Lichtman: Nostradamus No More
Allan Lichtman’s “Keys to the White House” model has been a mainstay in political forecasting, accurately predicting elections since 1984. This year, he predicted Joe Biden to win, and then Kamala Harris based on his model.
“The keys are premised on the proposition that a rational, pragmatic electorate decides whether the White House party has governed well enough to get another four years,” Lichtman explained to The Guardian. “Just as this kind of hate and violence is new, there are precedent-shattering elements now to our political system, most notably disinformation."
“There’s always been disinformation but it has exploded to a degree we’ve never seen before. It’s not just Fox News and the rightwing media. It’s also rightwing podcasters and we have a brand new player, the $300bn guy, Elon Musk, whose wealth exceeds that of most countries in the world and has heavily put his thumb on disinformation.”
As I’ve pointed out before, his model didn’t actually fail, but his personal biases did. A more objective assessment of his “Keys to the White House” model showed that it very much predicted a Trump victory. But, in the wake of the election, he blamed everyone but himself for his failed prediction, and in the end, his reputation lost.
