Neglecting ‘kitchen table issues’ behind Democrats’ loss: pollster

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Democratic Party lost a lot of votes in last week’s presidential election by focusing on such issues as gender ideology, global warming and abortion instead of the basic “kitchen table issues” of ordinary Americans, says a senior pollster.

Brent Buchanan, the founder of Cygnal, a Washington, D.C.-based public opinion polling and analytics firm which has done fieldwork for more than 360 Republican Party campaigns in the US, told Anadolu that Republican candidate Donald Trump boosted his votes by 2% compared to the previous election, while Democratic candidate Kamala Harris lost 4% in swing states, 10% in Republican-leaning states and 15% in Democratic-leaning states.

Describing America as a center-right leaning country, Buchanan said that addressing the cost-of-living crisis and “conservative values” won Trump votes and cost the Democratic Party nearly 10 million voters.

“So if your basic needs are met, if money’s not a problem, housing’s covered, you get to start thinking about other issues like abortion and climate change and gender ideology, and normal people who are just trying to make ends meet don’t really care about any of those. And if they do, they probably disagree with you on them,” he said.

Noting that Latino voters with Catholic and conservative family structures voted for Trump in large numbers due to both the cost-of-living crisis and gender ideology, Buchanan said this was the most important contribution to winning the elections.

– ‘Trump got both Arab and Jewish votes’ –

Highlighting that the Biden administration’s Gaza policy lost the Democrats votes at key points, Buchanan said that according to his data, Muslims and Hasidic Jews who want peace in Gaza also voted for Trump.

“There’s a city right outside of Detroit called Dearborn, Michigan that is very heavily Muslim. It’s several hundred thousand in population. And I believe Trump won the plurality of it. And then Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, came in second and Kamala Harris actually came in third in Dearborn, Michigan. And so it’s really unique to see that both Arabs and Jews swung heavily to Donald Trump,” he said.

Orthodox Hasidic Jews in the US have expressed their opposition to Israel’s attacks on Gaza from day one and have held many protests. Buchanan said that in states such as New York and Pennsylvania, where this Jewish community is densely populated, many votes were cast for Trump.