PHOTO: Lawrence University
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) — Donald Trump is now the President-Elect of the United States. The republican received 295 electoral college votes and took the win against current Vice President Kamala Harris, who only had 226 electoral college votes.
Trump’s victory marks only the second time in U.S. History that a president has served two non-consecutive terms. The first time was Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd president after the 1884 election, and as the 24th president beginning in 1892.
Jerald Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University in Appleton says he’s seeing a major change in the two major political parties.
“The democratic party has historically billed itself as ‘the party of the working man, working woman, and the party of the people,'” said Podair. “But last night [election night], it struck me that the Donald Trump republican party, going forward, is the party of the worker; the party of the paycheck-to-paycheck voter.”
While Podair himself predicted a Kamala Harris victory, he said she should have drawn clearer distinctions between her and current president Joe Biden. In fact, Biden’s approval rating is only 37%.
“When she was asked on ‘The View’ weather she would do anything different than Biden, and she said ‘no she wouldn’t’, I think that was a very poor answer,” said Podair. “It would have been better for her to separate herself out from Biden, without repudiating him completely.”
Podair also noted that Harris might have had a better chance at winning if she selected Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate, as that could have helped her secure the state of Pennsylvania.
Swing state Wisconsin will sometimes elect a republican in one race and a democrat in another; as was the case with the presidential and U.S. Senate race. Podair says rhetoric from Eric Hovde about people in nursing homes not being qualified to vote, and also statements regarding overweight people and healthcare, could have pushed voters away from him.
“These are people who might have been republican, and might have been Trump voters,” said Podair. “But enough of them switched away from Hovde, which may have made the difference for Tammy Baldwin.”
Harris officially conceded the race Wednesday afternoon during a speech at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C. She also called Trump to congratulate him, saying she plans to help him and his team with their transition back into the White House in a “peaceful transfer of power.”
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