MARK PENN: Trump’s triumph sends major message. It’s the working class and middle America that run our country

The American people have spoken and spoken clearly that Donald Trump is their choice for president. They sent a clear message to the coastal elites that it’s the working class and middle America that runs this country.

Vice President Kamala Harris ran a worthy effort in a short period of time and certainly did better than President Joe Biden would have done. There will be a lot of second-guessing, particularly around her failure to pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her vice presidential running mate but the blue wall so collapsed that even that decision would likely not reverse this outcome.

Americans were unhappy with the course of the country. The voters believed that they were worse off under Joe Biden, whom they blamed for inflation. They wanted a border that was closed and a leader who would again project strength not weakness.

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But Donald Trump is likely the only Republican who could have won this race because only he was able to speak to the working class voters who feel left out of a Democratic agenda that offered handouts rather than opportunities and cared more about climate change rather than lower energy prices. These Trump voters have different priorities.

His campaign deftly targeted Michigan voters over autoworker jobs, Pennsylvania voters over fracking, Arizona over immigration, and Nevada over “no tax on tips.” These targeted efforts all spoke to the working classes of these states and expanding their opportunities.

Trump did better with just about everyone. From the exit polls, he appears to have done better, particularly with younger voters. Democrats lost ground with Latinos and even Black voters, who did not come out as they have for other Democrats.

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The Democrats must now dismantle the lawfare campaign they have assembled and recognize that America has voted and said that January 6th is history and a chapter has closed. The Democrats are the ones now who must pass power with dignity and grace so they do not spoil their chances at a return in 2028. 

And the party will have to look at how far to the left it has drifted and reset itself for 2028. That’s a presidential election when there will be open primaries on both sides of the political aisle and America will have an opportunity to set a course for the next decade.

The liberal media again lost the trust of the American people, sinking to new lows in the polls and will have to work to reset their newsrooms. 

Polling was again just a few points too conservative and there were again two to three points of so-called shy Trump voters waiting for their votes to be revealed on Election Day. The dimension of Trump’s win unfolded only as the votes were counted and no polls really predicted the full magnitude of the victory. Iowa, Ohio, Florida were once all considered swing states and now are not even close. 

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Trump’s victory is a victory for the Americans who feel abandoned by the elites and a Democratic Party that moved too far from mainstream America. 

Now it will be Trump’s turn to learn from his first administration and try to lead this country forward and wisely use the power the American people are putting in his hands.  

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