Democracy motivated Harris and Trump voters for different reasons

WASHINGTON (AP) While inflation and immigration emerged as the dominant themes of this year's presidential race, another issue loomed large on the minds of voters for both major candidates: what's at stake for democracy.

Half of voters identified democracy as the most important motivator for their vote. That's more than the share of voters who responded the same way about inflation, the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, abortion policy or free speech, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

Notably, supporters of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican President-elect Donald Trump viewed the issue from different perspectives.

About two-thirds of Harris voters said the future of democracy was the most important factor in their vote. No other issue, high prices, the politics of abortion, free speech or the potential of the first woman to be elected president, has been as important a factor for his supporters. Harris particularly leaned into this message toward the end of her campaign: She said Trump was a threat to undermine the country's founding ideals and she called him a fascist.

This sentiment was supported by former members of the first Trump administration who warned about his fitness for office. Trump refused the peaceful transfer of power while lying about his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. And on January 6, 2021, Trump also led a mob of his supporters to the Capitol after telling them to fight like hell.

Audrey Wesley, 90, of Minneapolis, cited Trump's legal affairs and disregard for the law as one of the reasons she supported Harris.

Our system is broken, she said.

Wesley said one of the things that troubled her most was Project 2025, a detailed conservative plan for the next Republican administration. Trump said he had not read the report, even though many members of his first administration helped write it.

FILE – Supporters applaud as Democratic presidential running mate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event, Oct. 30, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

It's very scary as to what he wants to do, Wesley said.

The idea that democracy is under attack also motivated Trump voters, but in very different ways. About a third of his supporters said democracy was the most important factor in their vote.

Further analysis of the survey found that 9 in 10 Harris voters who indicated democracy was the most important factor in their vote were somewhat or very concerned that electing Trump would bring the country closer together of authoritarianism. About 8 in 10 Trump voters thought electing Harris would move the country closer to authoritarianism. Democratic voters who supported Harris and Trump were also concerned that the opposing candidates' views were too extreme.

The results followed a consistent trend in recent surveys conducted by AP VoteCast and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Although the future of democracy is one of the few recurring concerns among a divided electorate, people differ on why they worry about it and who is responsible for this threat.

Debbie Dooley, 66, and co-founder of the Tea Party movement, had several important factors in her voting decision, all raising concerns about what would happen to the country under another Democratic administration.

I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said that when people fear their government, there is tyranny, she said. We have experienced tyranny under the Biden-Harris machine.

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Dooley, a longtime Trump supporter, cited the country's open borders and concerns among many conservatives about crimes caused by migrants who have skirted the law. The Cumming, Georgia, resident also agreed with Trump's assertion that the Biden administration had unleashed the Justice Department on his political opponents.

This is something they do in Russia. This is something they would do in China, not in the United States, not here, in the beacon of freedom for the world, Dooley said.

Republicans have held congressional hearings for nearly two years, but have provided little support for the claim that Biden has weaponized the department.

FILE – Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, file)

Like many other conservatives, Dooley also felt that social media companies had silenced their voices, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank God for Elon Musk, she said. Twitter or X is a totally different place now than it was before he took over, so we have First Amendment rights. It's freedom of expression.

The survey finds that nearly all Democratic voters who supported Trump said free speech was at least one factor in their vote. This was a less important issue for Trump voters, who said democracy was a minor or no factor in their choice.

Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, said the opposing views on which side posed a threat to democracy are understandable because both campaigns had spoken about the other in those terms. And because democracy is an abstract issue, what constitutes a threat can vary.

Harris has talked a lot about democracy, and the Democratic coalition has talked a lot about threats to democracy, he said. So it's no surprise that many Democrats rightly perceive Trump as a threat and point to him as one of the most important issues.

Vice President Kamala Harris gestures as she delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Stéphanie Scarbrough)

The fact that Republicans have echoed the claims against Harris seems unusual, but one of Trump's political strategies is to appropriate an attack on him and turn it against his opponent. Nyhan said Trump successfully achieved this with the democracy argument.

Border protection, for example, might mean one thing to a Harris supporter and something entirely different to a Trump voter who might support the idea of ​​the Great Replacement Plot, the notion that the influence of Whites are diminished by illegal immigration.

In her concession speech at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, Harris alluded to the importance of accepting election results even if lost and peacefully transferring power, something Trump has conditioned on whether he would consider the election result to be fair.

This principle, like any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, Harris said.

Leah Wright Rigueur, a history professor at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said the democratic process as expressed through the presidential vote has won, for now.

Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, arrives at an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The 2024 presidential election was basically, from what I understand, an example of democracy in action. Trump won the Electoral College. Trump won the popular vote, she said.

The question is whether the country would be as peaceful if the outcome was different and how would the nation bridge this fissure in the future when a very vocal section of the American public sees democracy only working when my side wins, but tyranny when yours wins?

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Associated Press writer Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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