Our Chicago: Takeaways from the 2024 Presidential Election
Former President Donald Trump is now, President-elect Trump. In Tuesday's race against Vice President Kamala Harris he won both the electoral and popular votes.
The president-elect also made inroads with Latino voters and with voters here in Chicago.
Data shows 67 precincts in the city flipped from blue in 2020 to red in 2024. Only 15 flipped from red to blue.
Statewide, Donald Trump lost in Illinois by a much smaller margin, eight percentage points, versus 17 in 2020.
"He made gains with some of the same voters that he made gains with nationally," said ABC 7 Political Analyst Laura Washington. "Working class voters, especially if you look at Chicago on the Northwest Side and the Southwest Side, on the margins, those are folks that are not necessarily Republicans but they're working class."
David Greising is the President and CEO of the Better Government Association.
"He's made a direct appeal to that type of voter and the Democratic party seems to have made appeals that no longer resonate with them," Greising said. "I think there's some concern that the Democratic Party's promises have gone unfulfilled in a way."
He explained that during Harris's campaign, the message may not have been one that connected with voters.
"I think the whole focus on democracy and saving democracy, I think that probably was an error," said Washington.
She said at the end of Harris's campaign, the vice president thought that was what was going to resonate with voters and "all they cared about was the economy."
Looking ahead to President-elect Donald Trump's second term, some of his policies could have a negative impact on Illinois.
"The whole issue of immigration and the deportations. Not only the fact that many of those deportations would be happening in our community, right here in Chicago, those would take workers out of circulation. That would have an impact on the economy. And then the funding, the Biden administration did a lot to support Chicago and Illinois in terms of handling the migrant situation, making sure there were enough resources. All that money's going to be gone under a Trump administration." Greising said.
He added that the mayor's Chief of Staff Jason Lee has expressed concerns that that some funds that go toward the $10 billion O'Hare expansion and the funding of a Stellantis plant in Belvidere could be up in the air, depending on how Donald Trump relates to Illinois.
