It’s the day we’ve all been dreaming of... or having nightmares about. With much more on the line, Nov. 5 is shaping up to be an historic election, but much like in 2020, don’t expect it to go down so quickly or so smoothly.
As The Root looks ahead to the country’s future, here are likely scenarios to keep in mind if either candidate wins. Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris represent two distinct visions for the nation, so what could the country look like when one of them is named victorious?
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There’s a lot of unknowns with a Harris presidency, but on the flip side, we’ve all experienced a Trump victory. “Donald Trump is going to claim fraud regardless— even if he wins,” said Jason Nichols, a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland. “He going to say ‘I won bigger.’ That’s what he did in 2016.”
Nichols remembers the battle between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump where Clinton won more popular votes than any other losing presidential candidate in history. Even though Trump secured the electoral college vote, winning the presidential seat, he lost the popular vote by almost three million. Afterwards, he took to Twitter saying “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
Gevin Reynolds, a political commentator and former speechwriter for Harris, said he’s hopeful if the vice president loses, America will stay strong. “The American people are an incredibly resilient people,” he told The Root. This country has survived wars, global pandemics, social unrest, one Trump presidency and still came out on top.
“Because of the will of the American people, we have lived to fight yet another day,” Reynolds said. He also notes in challenging times is where America succeeds. “When Donald Trump was in office, Vice President Harris came to the scene in the Senate,” he remembered.
If Harris loses, Reynolds said “you’ll see folks on the other side— whether Vice President Harris or other incredible leaders in the Democratic party— working hard to articulate a vision to win voters back over in four years.”
When President Joe Biden won in 2020, Trump continued rumblings of alleged fraud. Although these claims where eventually all denounced in state courts, as reported by the Campaign Legal Center, history proves if Trump doesn’t immediately claim fraud this time around, his supporters will.
“Right-wing cable news has been priming their audience that Trump is going to win, and Trump is going to win big,” said Nichols, who also frequently works for Newsmax. It’s clear MAGA supporters are expecting a sweeping Trump victory, but if not, the country must prepare for another insurrection like on Jan. 6, 2021.
Democratic political advisor Antjuan Seawright argued Trump’s “already setting the tone for the scenario that he doesn’t win.” According to Seawright, Trump is “trying to sow fear, frustration, anger, and confusion into the political system.”
In response to these growing concerns, Seawright told The Root it’s up to the American people to “push back on the extremism” and hold the country together. “The expectation and the requirement of the Republican party is going to be to accept the results, certify the election, and not allow our country to go off on the deep end.”
If she heads back into the White House— this time in the driver seat, Harris must prove to the American people, especially Black folks, she was the proper choice. Alvin Tillery, founder of 2040 Strategy Group and professor at Northwestern University, told The Root this responsibility, however, will ultimately fall on the Black community.
“If Harris gets elected and six months in nothing has been done for Black people, that will be our fault,” he said. Tillery called on the Black community to “organize and pressure VP Harris when she’s President Harris... to put an agenda on the table,” he said. If not, he expects the Democratic nominee to receive the same treatment as former President Barack Obama once did. “She’ll be defended and loved by Black people,” he continued. “But at the end of her term, nothing from our agenda will be accomplished.”
Whoever wins has quite the job to do. The country is divided and needs a leader to rein all Americans in together. You can watch the election results live on YouTube.
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