After the 2020 election, Republicans looked at what happened, figured out what they did wrong, and sought to fix it. Perhaps one of the biggest course corrections was the embrace of early voting. We don’t like it, but we understood that we’d keep losing elections until we played by the same rules as the Democrats. And it worked.
But the Democrats don’t seem to be understanding what went wrong for them in 2024. There’s a lot of fingerpointing going on right now, with many on the left putting the blame on Joe Biden for not dropping out earlier or for seeking a second term at all.
Even smart people who aren’t directly connected to the players can get it wrong.
For example, Shark Tank’s Kevin O'Leary appeared on CNN this week, and put forth his theory for where and when it all went wrong for Kamala Harris.
“The root of this mistake actually came very early on,” he said. “They didn't run a process. They made an excuse of $317 million in the kitty. They kept the same campaign manager and said, we will anoint this faulted, broken candidate who did was inconsequential in her vice presidency. Lost in 2019, as you detailed. Complete loser in 2020. Never could articulate anything. Had no compassion for people and her own advocates.”
Related: We Have An Update on Kamala's Future Political Plans
“Let's not forget this,” O’Leary continued. “I remember the minute this happened. I was in Europe. She went on to The View. All those women wanted her to win. They threw her a softball. They threw her a second softball. She was so weak as a candidate, she couldn't even answer that she would do something different. It ricocheted around the world. She was finished. They will never do that again.”
While his critique is compelling, the reality is that Kamala Harris was never destined for political success—not in the 2020 campaign, or 2024—because the fundamentals that dictated the outcome of this election were baked into the cake well before Joe Biden dropped out.
Kevin O’Leary Delivers a Brutal Reality Check on Why Kamala Harris Lost in a Landslide
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) November 27, 2024
This is the harshest critique I've ever heard on CNN.
• “Faulted, broken candidate.”
• “Inconsequential in her vice presidency.”
• “Complete loser in 2020.”
• “Never could articulate… pic.twitter.com/QMqCcUoHFO
O'Leary argues the failure was procedural—that a lack of planning and the decision to double down on a weak candidate created the disaster. I think he's wrong. I believe that even with a different candidate, the Democrat ticket would have failed.
For sure, Kamala was a deeply flawed candidate. Her shortcomings were evident during her presidential run in 2019, and her historically unpopular vice presidency made it clear to anyone she was not the best candidate to run, but I think even those who rallied behind her knew that.
Remember Kamala’s vice presidential search? Remember how there were reports that both Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper turned down the chance to be her running mate? Neither were willing to risk being on a losing ticket that could hurt their political careers in home states. Shapiro is up for reelection in 2026, and Cooper is planning a Senate run. Do you think it’s a coincidence that both men declined and both of their states went to Trump in 2024?
But even Democrats who were waiting in the wings after the 2020 election for Joe Biden to announce he wasn't going to seek a second term didn't make an attempt to seek the nomination. Why? For the same reasons Shapiro and Cooper didn't want to be on the Democratic ticket: the fundamentals of the race always benefited Trump.
I think Trump's victory became inevitable within the first year of the Biden-Harris administration. They dropped the ball on inflation, opened the borders, and botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan. While Afghanistan may not have been at the forefront of everyone's mind when they voted, it was the turning point of Biden's presidency that sent his approval ratings underwater, where they remained ever since.
Kamala Harris was never going to stop Trump. Her disastrous performance on The View didn't sink her campaign; it only reinforced the reasons she was destined to lose.
