7 people who predicted Trump's victory

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Friday, November 08, 2024

David Brooks

Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Resch Center on Oct. 30, 2024, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. With less than a week until Election Day, Trump continues to campaign in the battleground swing states. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

David Brooks, a New York Times columnist and former senior editor at The Weekly Standard, penned a speculative piece published in September titled “How Trump Wins (and Harris and the Democrats Blow It).”

Brooks wrote that Trump “seems to do everything possible to sabotage his own campaigns, but still does surprisingly well in elections.” Harris, by contrast, “was not in as good a shape as Hillary Clinton was in 2016 or Biden was in 2020.”

“For years voters in swing states had been telling pollsters that the economy and inflation were their top issues,” he reasoned. “They looked around the country and concluded that the Republican approach seemed better at generating dynamism and growth, or at least better than Harris’ pitch for and defense of Bidenomics.”

“I know who I fervently wanted to win — Harris. But many Democrats were always a little over-ebullient about her. A Trump victory has never come down to running a brilliant campaign.”