These numbers are really no different from what I expected from Biden if he'd stayed in. Allowing him to run for re-election in the first place was a massive miscalculation by the party. What shocks me is that none of the 2016-style alarm bells were going off, and all the favorability numbers and conventional wisdom were saying this would either be a close race or a blowout in Harris's favor.
Taylor Swift getting all those new registrations? All these records being shattered in big cities? Fewer Trump signs and people falling asleep at his rallies? The Dobbs effect? Her massive cash advantage and all these field offices and organized ground game?
Was all of that a big lie?
The only thing I knew to be true going into last night was that Mexican-Americans have absolutely abandoned the Democrats, perhaps forever. I sensed it on a recent trip to the RGV, and last night's results confirmed it. Hillary Clinton won Starr County by nearly 80 percent, Biden barely held onto it, and this year it went red by a lot. "Fun" Fact: Starr County is the first place where a DA prosecuted a woman for having an abortion, before Dobbs.
Harris also lost the population centers of McAllen and Brownsville. That was unthinkable twenty years ago. RGV has now become a mini West Virginia, where only incumbent Dems with strong name recognition have any chance.
I think Harris ran a near-perfect campaign. She did not make the mistakes Hillary made. This one's on the voters.