Many “winners” and “losers” emerged in 2024 as the year came to a close after Republicans took control of Congress in the November elections and several prominent Democrats ended up on the losing side.
Winner – President-elect Donald Trump
Critics in the media largely denounced Trump after he left office, saying his political career was over in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and House impeachment. This criticism intensified after he found himself facing indictments in several different jurisdictions and fighting with several prominent Republicans during the GOP primaries.
However, Trump has weathered the political storm while surviving two assassination attempts and reclaiming the White House last November Description a lot As the greatest political comeback in American political history.
The most important political missteps of 2024
From left: Vice President Kamala Harris, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance
Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, for a term that will be strengthened by Republican control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for at least the next two years.
loser – Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
President Biden made history this summer when he dropped out of the presidential race amid pressure from many within his party and handed the reins to his vice president despite calls for an open primary.
After several months of campaigning along with $1 billion in spending, Harris ultimately failed to convince voters that the policies of the Biden-Harris administration should continue for four years of a Harris presidency.
Harris lost the popular vote and the Electoral College to Trump, and down-ballot Republicans picked up enough seats to maintain control of the House and regain control of the Senate.
The most annoying people of 2024. Left and right can agree on at least 2
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, arrive at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on August 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
It was Harris Widely criticized For her decision to choose Walz as her running mate, many political experts confirmed that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was the perfect choice. Walz was profiled by many media outlets as a personable and popular governor who brought “Midwestern charm” to the ticket but also consistently drew negative attention to the campaign through a series of gaffes and controversial statements about his past military service.
“Historically, vice presidents have had little influence over the fate of a presidential nominee,” Rob Bloy, president and executive editor of The Daily Signal, told Fox News Digital last month.
“But in the case of Tim Walz, it proved to be a disastrous decision that doomed Kamala Harris from the moment she made it. Not only was Walz unprepared for the national spotlight and media scrutiny, Harris passed over many better options. Given how little Americans know about Harris Or her political positions, they were right to question her judgment on this major decision.”
Winner – Elon Musk
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO officially threw his support behind Trump shortly after the former president survived being shot during a failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Musk quickly became a fixture on the election campaign and spoke at a rally at the site of the assassination attempt.
“You see, I'm not just a MAGA. I'm a Dark MAGA,” Musk said. He joked at the rally In October, a reference to the Dark Brandon meme. He described the upcoming November 5 elections as “the most important elections in our lives.”
Over the past few months, Musk has positioned himself as a key voice in the Trump administration, and has been seen at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida several times — and some outlets have reported that he lives at the property — and his influence has grown to the point that even liberal critics are… accusing him For being the “Co-Chair”.
Musk, along with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, was appointed by Trump to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, which has already caused a stir in Washington, D.C., where elected officials on both sides of the aisle support the agency's stated goal of cutting government spending. Government waste.
loser – George Soros
2024: The year pro-Trump celebrities went mainstream
Leftist billionaire and philanthropist George Soros (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Soros money machine that supported progressive lawmakers and prosecutors across the country Suffered huge losses In blue California on election night as voters overwhelmingly rejected progressives on the crime issue.
California voters voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 36, which repealed key provisions of Proposition 47, which state Democrats had heralded as progressive crime reforms that would make the state safer.
When Proposition 47 was passed in 2014, most thefts were downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors if the amount stolen was less than $950, “unless the defendant has prior convictions for murder, rape, certain sex crimes, or certain weapons offenses.”
Progressives suffered another major loss in Los Angeles, where Attorney General George Gascón, who co-authored Proposition 47 and was supported by Soros, decided… He was Defeated by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman as crime was seen as a major issue in the election cycle.
In another loss for Soros-backed prosecutors in the Golden State, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price I was remindedless than two years into office, following a backlash over her alleged approach to crime.
Democratic Oakland Mayor Cheng Thao, who has faced criticism from her constituents amid rising crime, was also ousted from office after her recall effort succeeded with 65% of the vote.
And in San Francisco, where crime has been a major concern for voters, Democratic Mayor London Breed said She lost her re-election campaign.
“I think this is broader than just a message from people who care about crime,” says Collie Stimson, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of Rogue Prosecutors: How Soros' Radical Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities. He told Fox News Digital.
“This is a massive mandate and a cry for help from the general population that we want our state back, we want our counties back, we want our cities back, that our failed social experiments have had enough time, and it's an absolute, abject failure.”
Winner – Vice President-elect J.D. Vance
Senator J.D. Vance, vice president-elect of Ohio, leaves the Senate floor as lawmakers work on a temporary spending bill at the Capitol on December 18, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A common narrative among left-wing pundits during the presidential election cycle was that Trump's vice presidential nominee, Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, would alienate voters with a figure they considered unlikable.
Contrary to that narrative, Vance cemented himself as a formidable force in conservative politics, appearing on a variety of podcasts, holding frequent press conferences and putting on a debate performance that many polls indicated he would win.
Vance had a 34% favorability rating when he joined Trump on the ticket. This number rose over the next few months, and Real clear policy stated In mid-November his approval rating had risen to 44%.
“I thought people would be more concerned about JD Vance,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Semaphore said this week.
Vance, 40, will be the third-youngest vice president in American history when he is sworn in next month. Because the Constitution bars Trump from seeking another term in office, Vance is already viewed as the front-runner for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination.
“We're getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of J.D. Vance,” Donald Trump Jr. said in October on the campaign trail.
Younger Trump He is a staunch ally of the Vice President-elect, and is very popular with the MAGA base.
“The vice president will be in Catbird's seat, there's no question about it,” Dave Carney, a longtime Republican consultant, told Fox News Digital.
loser – Democratic Senate incumbents
On their way to taking control of the Senate, Republicans succeeded in unseating several Democrats who had spent decades in the chamber.
Senator Sherrod Brown represented Ohio in the Senate since 2007 before falling in November to his Republican rival, businessman Bernie Moreno. Brown, considered one of the most vulnerable senators before the election, tried to portray himself as a moderate to Ohio voters who ended up voting for Moreno in a state that Trump won by 11 points.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who comes from a family prominent in Pennsylvania politics, has represented the state in the Senate since 2007 and was long considered one of the toughest candidates to defeat until he lost to GOP challenger Dave McCormick in November.
McCormick, a 59-year-old businessman, beat Casey by a razor-thin margin of 0.2% after gaining Trump's support and dissatisfaction with the economy that Biden and Harris presided over for four years.
“We've heard a common refrain. The one message we've heard over and over again is that we need change. The country is going in the wrong direction. We need leadership to get our economy back on track to get this horrific inflation under control,” McCormick said after the election.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who also joined the Senate as a Democrat in 2007, faced a similar fate in November after losing his seat to former Marine Tim Sheehy.
Tester has taken more moderate positions in recent years, openly breaking with the Biden-Harris administration on several issues over the years, but that was not enough to convince voters in Montana, where Trump won by about 20 points.
Fox News Digital's David Rutz, Paul Steinhauser and Courtney O'Brien contributed to this report.
