By William Lewis
The 2016 presidential race turned into an unexpected upset victory for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Most political observers thought Clinton would win. Some news media people seemed to believe that she would win by a large margin.
When we look at the support Trump had, however, the huge crowds that came to his rallies were an important factor. There seemed to be large crowds at every rally that Trump had. Clinton had smaller crowds at her rallies compared to Trump.
From the Trump rallies came many volunteers who would work with Trump’s campaign staff. This type of organization helped in building Trump’s staff. It can be said that Trump’s supporters had a higher degree of dedication.
Clinton had strong field operations and spent large amounts of money on campaign advertising. When we compare the two candidates, both were excellent public speakers and both had charisma.
A big difference between the two is that Trump had a large platform of issues on the GOP side. He had taken positions on providing jobs for the middle class, lowering taxes, immigration, improving our military and improving trade. Trump stressed these issues at his campaign rallies. Clinton, on the other hand, did not have an extensive platform of issues for the Democratic base.
I believe that Clinton spent too much time personally attacking Trump instead of speaking out on issues that affect the American people. The people wanted to hear about political and social issues facing our entire nation and their families’ future. The Clinton family did not appear to have the dedication that the Trump campaign had. The American people wanted change and Trump certainly provided that.
The Democratic Party in past decades always had the support of a majority of blue collar workers, but in this particular election a large number of blue collar workers supported Trump. The Clinton campaign seemed to draw their support from upper-income people as well as higher-educated and minority groups. Some support for her came from almost all groups.
Few campaigns for president in the past were anything like our just concluded presidential race. Donald Trump campaigned probably harder than any other presidential candidate in the past. In the closing weeks of the race he would be out on the campaign trail seven days a week, sometimes having five rallies daily. For a man of his age he wanted to show his tremendous strength and energy,
It was a very negative race for the electorate, which ended with Trump winning the Electoral College and Clinton taking the popular vote Most people were glad to see the election end. We’ve had nothing like that in the past and hopefully not again in the foreseeable future.
Let’s hope we can work together during the next four years.
