Politics

Harris, Trump and demographics in the US election

Published

1 year ago

October 19, 2024

In the US presidential election in November, roughly 244 million people are eligible to vote. What demographic groups make up the country’s voting population? And how have they voted in the past?

In 2024, election day in the United States falls on November 5 — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Roughly 244 million US citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to cast their votes, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, though some states strip that right from people who have been convicted of felonies.

The US has seen an increase in voter participation in recent years. In 2016, only about 59% of eligible voters cast ballots in the presidential election. In 2020, that number stood at 66% — the highest rate for any national election since 1900, according to the Pew Research Center.

Democrats or Republicans? On November 5, millions of US voters have a choice to make.
© imago/UIG

Race in the US election

Race is a key factor in US electoral politics. And there are large disparities between different races when it comes to how many people show up to vote: In the 2020 election, almost 71% of white voters cast ballots compared to only 58.4% of non-white voters, according to the Brennan Center for Justice law and policy institute. That election saw 62.6% of Black American voters, 53.7% of Latino American voters, and 59.7% of Asian American voters cast ballots.

Over the years, the Brennan Center reports, several states have made registering to vote harder ― specifically, states that were governed by Republicans and that had seen an increase in non-white voter turnout in the years prior.

Traditionally, Black US-Americans are more likely to vote Democrat, and 2020 was no exception: In all, 87% of Black voters cast their ballot for the Democratic Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. The majority of white voters in the 2020 election, 58%, cast their ballot for Republican Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence, while 65% of Latino voters and 61% of Asian American voters cast their ballot for Biden, according to exit polls.

While it’s unclear whether these groups will vote for the same party again in this presidential election, we do know that there will be more eligible Black voters in 2024 than there were in 2020. According to the Pew Research Center, their number will stand at an estimated 34.4 million, which is a 7% increase compared to 2020. This also means that a larger part of the US electorate is Black. In 2000, 12.1% of all eligible US voters were Black. In the 2024 election, the Pew Research Center projects that 14% of eligible voters will be Black.

Whether this will be an advantage for Kamala Harris, who was voted the Democratic candidate for president after Biden dropped out of the race, remains to be seen. As mentioned above, turnout among Black voters is lower than among white voters. And the percentage of Black voters casting their ballot for the Democratic candidate has been decreasing slightly since 2012, when Barack Obama last ran. The fact that Harris, who is Black and South Asian-American (her father is Jamaican American, her mother was Indian American; both came to the US as young adults) was on the ticket in 2020 could not reverse that trend. It’s unclear as of yet whether it will make a difference this time around, when she is the candidate for president, not just vice president.

Age of US voters

From 2016 to 2020, there was a significant increase in voter turnout among young voters, those aged 18 to 29. In 2016, an estimated 39% of them voted, while in 2020, that number went up to 50%, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

And where do young voters stand on the political spectrum? Exit polls after the 2020 election showed that 60% of all young voters cast their ballot for Biden, and only 36% for Trump. The majority of voters aged 30 to 44 also cast their ballot for Biden, though their majority was a slimmer one at 52%. Trump won the majority of voters (62%) aged 65 and over.

In 2023, 66% of registered US voters aged 18 to 24 said they were Democrat or Democrat-leaning, as did 64% of voters aged 25 to 29. Among voters in their 30s, the majority is slimmer: In all, 55% associated themselves with the Democrats, while 42% said they were Republican or Republican-leaning. Republicans have the largest majority with voters over the age of 80: Fifty-eight percent of them associated themselves with the Republicans and only 39% with the Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center.

Will young Americans be as enthusiastically involved with the 2024 election as these young voters were in the 2018 midterms?
© picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS

Female Biden and Trump voters

Since 1980, women have consistently turned out to vote at higher rates than men in presidential elections. In 2020, 68.4% of women who were eligible to vote did so, compared to 65% of men, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

CAWP also states that “in every presidential election since 1996, a majority of women have preferred the Democratic candidate.”

There are, however, differences when it comes to white women and those of other ethnicities. Since the 2000 election, the majority of white women has voted for the Republican candidate in US presidential elections, whereas a large majority of Black, Latina and Asian women has been voting for the Democratic candidate for the entire time this information has been collected.

In the 2020 election, 57% of women as a whole voted for Biden and 42% for Trump (53% of men voted for Trump and 45% of men for Biden.) Among white women, only 44% voted for Biden in 2020 and 55% for Trump, according to CAWP. The picture is starkly different for Black women. Ninety percent of them voted for Biden in 2020 and only 9% for Trump.

In a poll published in June 2024 researchers for US health charity KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that among female voters, more Biden supporters seemed to be turning away from their candidate than among Trump supporters.

Of women who voted for Biden in 2020, 83% said they’d do the same again in the upcoming election. Seven percent said they’d vote for Trump this time around and 10% said they’d vote for someone else or not at all.

Trump has passionate supporters, many of them women.
© Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo/picture alliance

Of women who voted for Trump on the other hand, 92% said they’d vote for him again in the 2024 election, and none said they’d vote for Biden instead. Seven percent said they’d vote for someone else or not at all.

But Biden is, of course, not on the ballot anymore. Whether Harris can win back the female voters whose support Biden lost is one of the big questions that will be answered once November 5 rolls around.

Edited by: Timothy Jones

Author: Carla Bleiker, Jon Shelton

Politics

President Tinubu Transmits to The Senate Lists Of Ambassadorial Nominees

Published

12 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Ekwutos Blog

President Bola Tinubu has transmitted to the senate two lists of 34 career and 31 non career ambassadors nominees for screening and confirmation.

Prominent names listed as non career ambassadors include Reno Omokri, Femi Fani-Kayode, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, Victor Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

Also listed as non career ambassadors nominees are Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Vice Admiral Ete Ibas, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, Senator Nora Daduut, Fatima Ajimobi, and Senator Ita Enang among others.

The two lists brings to 68 number of persons nominated so far as ambassadors awaiting confirmation by the Senate.

Politics

PRESIDENT TINUBU FORWARDS NEW AMBASSADORIAL LIST TO SENATE, NOMINATES DAMBAZAU, IBAS, CHIOMA OHAKIM AND OTHERS

Published

17 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Ekwutos Blog

By Prince Uwalaka Chimaroke
4-DEC- 2025

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has submitted a fresh set of ambassadorial nominations to the Senate, featuring a mix of distinguished public figures and seasoned professionals drawn from across the country.

Among the notable nominees are former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau; former Chief of Naval Staff and immediate past sole administrator of Rivers State, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas; former senator Ita Enang; and Mrs. Chioma Ohakim, former First Lady of Imo State.

The President formally transmitted two comprehensive lists containing 34 career and 31 non-career ambassadorial nominees, bringing the total number of nominees awaiting Senate confirmation to 68.

The newly submitted lists mark another significant step in the administration’s ongoing diplomatic restructuring, aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s representation and presence across global missions.

The Senate is expected to commence screening and confirmation proceedings in the coming days.

Politics

I’m Not Playing Politics with Nnamdi Kanu’s Release – Gov Otti Replies Chief Ogbonna

Published

20 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Ekwutos Blog

Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to a Former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Abia State, Chief Charles Ogbonna, wherein he called Governor Alex Otti unprintable names and also alleged that Governor Otti didn’t visit President Tinubu to discuss the issue of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, but to plan on how to defect to the APC, among other childish verbal attacks.

Chief Ognonna has been unleashing unprovoked verbal venom and vituperation on the Governor, but we chose to ignore him, not only because we have been busy with the task of governance, but because we also know that he is traumatised by the obscurity he was plunged into after the 2023 general election and felt he should be allowed to experience some healing that could help normalise his reasoning.

Ordinarily, we would have still ignored Chief Ognonna’s latest idle tirade and allow him delude himself with fantasies of fury, but because the Nnamdi Kanu issue is both sensitive and very important to this government, we felt we should respond and put the records straight.

In continuation of Governor Otti’s efforts aimed at securing Kanu’s release, the Governor subsequently had a meeting with the President after visiting the IPOB leader at the Sokoto Correctional Centre on Sunday, November 30 2025. This is in continuation of earlier meetings the Governor had been having with the FG on this matter in the past two years.

The issue of Kanu was the only subject matter that took Governor Otti to Aso Rock and to the Glory of God, the meeting was both positive and fruitful, as the President was so gracious and generous.

Chief Ogbonna’s allegation of Governor Otti going to lobby to join the APC is both petty, ignoble, laughable and very irresponsible. At the risk of sounding immodest, any political party Governor Otti chooses to join today would roll out the drums and red carpet to welcome him with joy and excitement. If anything, many notable and respected APC leaders are not just desirous of having him in their fold, but are strongly appealing to Governor Otti to join their party because they know that he is not a liability.

Ogbonna accused Otti of betrayal, but he didn’t say who Otti betrayed, how and when.

He claimed that Otti doesn’t have capacity, yet Otti defeated him in his Polling Unit, Ward and LGA where his PDP Candidates from House of Assembly to President lost woefully.

He accused Governor Otti of inconsistency, yet he abandoned Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar less than 48 hours after the result of the Presidential Election was announced, in spite of the empty noise and boast he made about the PDP’s Presidential Candidate, all for Atiku’s money when it was needed and available.

He alleged that Governor Otti is playing politics with Nnamdi Kanu, yet, he is angry that the Governor is engaging the FG to secure Kanu’s freedom. Is there anything more contradictory and ridiculous than Ogbonna’s utterances?

At this point, the general public needs to know the genesis of Chief Ogbonna’s anger and aggression.

Having acquired Agbozu Cocoa Plantation when he was in government, the present government decided to reclaim the Plantation which was yielding nothing to the state under Charles Ogbonna. In line with Governor Otti’s policy of operating a government with human face, which sees him pay compensation so as not to hurt any citizen or investor, he approved a compensation package which was paid to Chief Ogbonna. He was excited and full of thanks and appreciation to Governor Otti for the gesture, because he knew he didn’t deserve it. Unfortunately and in line with his insatiable quest for power and money, he thought that another opportunity had opened for him to surreptitiously sneak into the government as he later nominated his son to be appointed by Governor Otti. The Governor flatly declined the request and subsequently appointed another person from the same Ogbonna’s Community, a development that made him feel slighted, diminished and broken and has since then gone out of control, throwing tantrums and hoping to be invited for settlement.

Chief Ogbonna’s problem, like some of his co-travellers is his failure to wake up from his slumber and realise that the era of ruins is over and that Abia has moved forward, never to be dragged back.

His primitive arrogance and mediocre mindset that limit his understanding of government and governance to political appointments, settlement and sharing of public funds without service to the people has so blinded him to the extent that he attacked the Governor recently for awarding the badly broken Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene road, claiming that the FG had aleady awarded it and thus should not be awarded by the Governor. How could any human being with conscience prefer that his people continue to suffer and die in their numbers just because he feels that building the strategic road would earn the Governor a huge political capital? Ogbonna needs to be reminded that such evil mindset has no place in the New Abia.

Even though Ogbonna’s character deficiency doesn’t position him for any modicum of respect, however, having advanced in age, he is expected to conduct himself honourably and responsibly so as not to attract insults to himself.

Finally, Ogbonna needs to be educated that one of the hallmarks of a great leader is his ability to apply wisdom, emotional intelligence and deploy the instrument of diplomacy in solving problems that have the propensity to impact the security of life and property of the people negatively if handled wrongly.

Governor Otti didn’t campaign with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s name in 2023, and doesn’t need to campaign with his plight for 2027, however, he strongly believes that resolving the problem of Kanu’s conviction is one of the ways to achieving peace, security and healing in our land. Unfortunately, Chief Ogbonna is not grounded, both in character and knowledge of the ingredients of modern leadership, hence his kindergarten politicisation of Governor Otti’s engagements with the FG and visit to the President.

Now that Ogbonna has become an errand boy in the APC, he needs to be reminded that he can pursue his stomach agenda without necessarily carrying out this misplaced aggression against Governor Otti, because it makes him look more pathetic than he can ever imagine.

Ferdinand Ekeoma

Special Adviser to the Governor

(Media and Publicity)

December 4, 2025.