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The bomb threats set the ominous tone for what would turn out to be a very bad night for Kamala Harris.<\/strong> In Georgia, a crucial swing state, they were targeted at heavily Democratic counties. By mid-afternoon LaTosha Brown,<\/strong> the cofounder of Black Voters Matter, was aware of at least 19 threats sent to polling sites and Democratic campaign offices; Brown also forwarded me the audio of a truly vile, racist phone message left for a Democratic county chair.<\/p>\n Similar threats would soon surface in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Some accounts attributed them to Russian email domains. Thankfully, no bombs were discovered. The hoaxes, though, were enough to prompt evacuations and delay counts. Yet the logistics turned out to be less significant than how they fit with the campaign atmosphere: Harris, a conventional candidate in many ways, was up against a ruthless opponent running to stay out of jail who promised ruthless policies<\/a>, such as mass deportations, and stoked<\/a> racism, sexism, and rage. Harris may have brought joy<\/a> to the campaign trail, but she and her team didn\u2019t have an answer to Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s dark furies.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart is full today, full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve,\u201d Harris told<\/a> supporters Wednesday afternoon at Howard University, her alma mater and the place she had intended to deliver a victory speech. \u201cThe outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But hear me when I say, hear me when I say, the light of America\u2019s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris added that she was \u201cso proud of the race we ran and the way we ran it.\u201d While Harris touted her campaign\u2019s efforts, the recriminations have already begun.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s stubbornness in staying on the ticket until late July is at the top of many lists. Another major problem lurked throughout the fall, as the polling consensus showed a razor-thin margin in most of the seven swing states. \u201cWe really struggle to get enough Trump people in our sample because their refusal rate is so much higher,\u201d a senior Harris adviser told me in late October. \u201cThe $3 billion question is: Is the polling as broken as it was registering Trump support in 2020 and 2016? The gap between the polling averages and his performance in the battleground states last time was pretty striking.\u201d It was again last night<\/a>. Trump steadily improved across the board, adding 2 or 3% in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin counties, until he won each state.<\/p>\n Harris\u2019s campaign team also made strategic choices that didn\u2019t work. The vice president couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t separate herself from Biden, most glaringly during an appearance on The View<\/em> in which Harris said she couldn\u2019t think of any examples where she differed from her boss. Given that Biden\u2019s most recent job approval percentages were in the dismal mid-to-high 30s, this was a serious problem. And it was intimately related to voter anger over the economy.<\/p>\n The president, when he was still the Democratic nominee, spent tens of millions of dollars in campaign cash trying and failing to sell \u201cBidenomics.\u201d Harris\u2019s team added what it hoped would be some enticing policy ideas aimed at middle-class voters, including grants for first-time homeowners and an expansion of Medicare to cover in-home costs for seniors. \u201cShe is trying to run as the change candidate, which is really hard and counterintuitive when you\u2019re the sitting vice president,\u201d a Democratic strategist told me.<\/p>\n Straddling them didn\u2019t pan out. Harris couldn\u2019t make any more of a dent with voters on the economy than Biden had, even as unemployment shrunk to 4% and the stock market climbed. Many voters, struggling to pay bills, were still angry over postpandemic inflation, and they took it out on the incumbent vice president. \u201c[Trump is] a symptom of something,\u201d Jon Stewart<\/strong> told me<\/a> last week. \u201cA system that seems to not responsibly answer to the needs of a lot of its people.\u201d That\u2019s true. What\u2019s delusional is thinking Trump can deliver\u2014or that he even cares about delivering\u2014a more equitable economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n