Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential elections has been described as an historic comeback.
His race to the White House saw the Republican face two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction, with several cases against him still ongoing.
Trump is the first person convicted of a felony to win the US presidency and the first former president to regain power since 1892.
The Republicans also won control of the Senate and, with most of the races called, look likely to take the House of Representatives as well.
Emory University Professor Bernard Fraga watched the race unfold on Tuesday night. He said there was a uniform swing towards Trump and believes the country is moving to the right.
“While there was a lot of discussion about specific groups like African American men maybe rejecting Harris for some reason, then the Harris campaign spent a lot of attention on black men as a result. Really with the exception of maybe Latino men, we saw the same kind of shift across all groups.”
Fraga said that even in states like California and New York, where voters typically lean toward Democrat candidates, people were “hungry for change” and craving a more conservative leadership.
“Kamala Harris’ decision to just run slightly away from the Biden record probably meant that most voters said this is a referendum on the current president Joe Biden,” he said.
“They didn’t like what he was doing. They thought they were better four years ago under Trump and voted for him as a result.”
Trump picked up a small but significant share of younger, Black, and Hispanic voters, many of whom are deeply concerned about the economy.