Donald Trump’s 2024 victory was a comeback story few thought possible, except perhaps Trump himself. His return to the White House came with a thunderous red wave, flipping battleground states like Pennsylvania that Democrats once considered strongholds. For Vice President Kamala Harris, Pennsylvania was the must-win state—and the one that proved her undoing. Trump’s team called it right: nail Pennsylvania, and the rest would fall into place. And fall it did.
The Keystone State, which has long teetered between red and blue, saw Trump sweep up support from key voter blocs that had reliably leaned Democrat. Both Black and Latino voters, historically a dependable base for Democrats, swung toward Trump in significant numbers. Harris managed 89% of the Black vote, a solid majority but still short of the 92% that Biden clinched in 2020.
The real shakeup came with Latino voters: Harris scraped by with just 57%, while Trump took a stunning 42%, a dramatic increase from his 2020 performance. Despite her last-ditch campaign efforts in Philadelphia, Harris couldn’t pull these voters back into the Democratic fold.
Harris’s struggle in Pennsylvania went beyond demographics; it was about the state’s economic landscape. In suburbs around blue cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, voters were feeling the strain of high inflation, rising grocery prices, and energy costs. For these voters, the memory of Trump’s pre-2020 economy was a persuasive reason to vote red. They may not have agreed with him on everything, but the promise of a return to economic stability won out.
Trump’s edge in Pennsylvania extended beyond the cities into key counties. Erie County, often a bellwether for the state, swung back to Trump after narrowly going for Biden in 2020. Then there’s Lackawanna County—Joe Biden’s backyard. Harris only managed to win by three points, a steep drop from Biden’s eight-point victory there in 2020. Her underperformance in these critical counties was a sign of a campaign that, according to some Pennsylvania Democrats, simply wasn’t connecting with local leaders or rallying turnout where it counted.
Complete Map of Counties in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Oklahoma and West Virginia the only states that understood the assignment pic.twitter.com/REWnKPv6tE
— TaraBull (@TaraBull808) November 7, 2024
Adding to the drama was Trump’s resilience after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. His return to the area to rally supporters showed the grit and determination that some voters find admirable, and it likely galvanized even more Pennsylvanians to turn out for him.
The final electoral map. It’s a thing of beauty. pic.twitter.com/KOFuaY9WvU
— Patriot Tom 🇺🇸 ⚓️ (@t_hodgey) November 7, 2024
On Wednesday, Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, didn’t hold back, offering a rare moment of candor from the left. “This is not just one county. This is not just one storyline… This is pretty systematic,” he admitted, calling Trump’s win in Pennsylvania “the largest Republican victory by a presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984.” For a Democrat, Boyle was blunt: Pennsylvania’s shift toward Trump was a wake-up call that couldn’t be sugarcoated.
Trump’s 2024 victory in Pennsylvania was more than just numbers on a map—it was an indictment of the Democrats’ failure to connect with working-class and minority voters who once saw them as the party of the people. With Harris out and Trump back in the Oval Office, Democrats are now left grappling with a hard truth: the “blue wall” isn’t impenetrable, and this time, it crumbled on their watch.
