Analysis: What's at Stake as U.S. Tallies Presidential Election Result

TaiwanPlus News

All eyes are on a handful of key battleground states as the U.S. tallies its presidential election results. We speak to Taiwan-based political risk analyst Ross Feingold.

Transcript

00:00How is the race looking?

00:01It's clear that Trump is doing well in some of the battleground states.

00:06That could be because of frustration over the economy and inflation.

00:10So there are a lot of voters who want to change, and if they want to change,

00:14then they're not going to vote for Harris because she's the incumbent vice president.

00:17They're going to look to change to a different political party,

00:21and that would be to Trump's clear advantage.

00:23Well, there are a few key constituencies that Harris needs to do well in

00:28in the battleground states in order to win the Electoral College.

00:31That includes the female vote, which polls had shown she had a tremendous lead,

00:35but whether or not it'll be enough remains to be seen.

00:39The same also goes with Black and Hispanic votes as well, where all the polls indicated that she

00:44would receive the overwhelming votes of Black and Hispanic voters,

00:48but maybe less than Joe Biden received four years ago.

00:53What will you be looking at?

00:54What will you be following over the next few hours as more results come out?

00:58The vote tallies are very, very close in the battleground states, maybe with some exceptions.

01:03Some of the counting, especially from the West Coast, still hasn't come in yet.

01:06But it looks like that the pollsters in many ways were correct,

01:10that this was going to be an extraordinary close election

01:14in the battleground states as well as in the national vote.

01:17So the truth is every single presidential election is extremely important,

01:21but this one is clearly different for a number of reasons.

01:24One, Joe Biden dropping out, the incumbent president dropping out so late

01:29in the abbreviated time that Harris had to run.

01:32Another difference is we have Donald Trump running for the third time.

01:37So in many ways, this presidential election is different than previous elections,

01:42and we also have a very divided country and what some people call hyper-partisanship,

01:48where people are either on one side or the other and there's no meeting halfway.

01:53And what exactly is at stake here, both for US voters and for the wider world?

01:57For the majority of voters, I think they're just voting based on their

02:01individual economic circumstances.

02:03And that's why when voters are asked what issue is most important,

02:05they frequently cite the economy.

02:07So they're voting on their personal economic circumstances,

02:11certainly the high inflation in 2021, 2022,

02:15and even into 2023 has a big effect on voters.

02:19Immigration is a key issue in a number of states as well based on the polls.

02:23And then also, of course, women's rights and reproductive rights for a lot of voters,

02:28that's also important as well.

02:29What's not ranking highly among voters concerned or what they're voting for is foreign policy,

02:34and that's consistent with past presidential elections as well,

02:36where foreign policy doesn't rank as the highest consideration for voters.

02:41Well, we know that Trump is willing to be very direct in his criticism

02:45of friends of the United States, friends and allies,

02:48whether that's European Union countries, NATO countries,

02:51Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Canada.

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