Biden was elected, in part, on a message that he would return the country to a sense of “normalcy,” using Trump’s remarks on the white supremacist rally at Charlottesville as one flashpoint. This cycle, Democrats made the same case — that voters should not return to the tumult of the Capitol riot.
The messaging represented an attempt to foster a sense of exhaustion with Trump. But Woodrow Johnston, a Republican consultant based in Las Vegas, cited an electoral “mood shift” that outweighed any concerns about the way Trump governs.
Riding that anger, Trump swept all seven battleground states, won the popular vote, and made historic inroads with minority voters, culminating in his electoral victory on Nov. 5.