VP KAMALA HARRIS, SPEAKING IN PITTSBURGH, NOV. 4, THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)

In the days after the Nov. 5 Presidential Election, many African Americans in Pittsburgh were too distraught, too angry, too disappointed to speak with the New Pittsburgh Courier on the record about Donald Trump defeating Kamala Harris in the race for the U.S. Presidency.

In fact, the weather on the day after the election was gloomy, cloud-filled, a little cold. For the vast majority of Black Pittsburghers and Black Pennsylvanians, the weather fit their mood.

Kamala Harris, the current U.S. Vice President, who rose from modest beginnings to become a Howard University graduate, become the first woman District Attorney of San Francisco, the first woman Attorney General of California, and just the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, was defeated in the presidential election by a convicted felon, who happened to be White—and male.

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Pittsburghers Speak Out

What did you think about the Presidential Election?

“I am highly upset over the election. I don’t think it was done fairly. I still think they’re not ready for a woman of color, although it would have been a good choice. I don’t understand why someone can have so many felonies against him, and yet our (Black) guys that have felonies can’t have a job… but we can find a felon (Trump) to run the country.”

Jackie Stewart, East Liberty

“I just believe that if Trump comes in and he wants to change things up, give him a chance. Everyone deserves a chance.”

Jamar Everett, Pittsburgh

“It was what it’s gonna be. Definitely more of us Black and brown people could have gotten out there and voted, but we gotta make the best of it.”

Serena Washington, East Liberty

“I already knew Trump was gonna win.

Derrick Williams, Wilkinsburg

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That’s the way many Black people are looking at the election, like Jackie Stewart of East Liberty, one of the few people to speak with the Courier on the record.

“I am highly upset over the election,” she said. “I don’t think it was done fairly. I still think they’re not ready for a woman of color, although it would have been a good choice. I don’t understand why someone can have so many felonies against him, and yet our (Black) guys that have felonies can’t have a job…but we can find a felon (Trump) to run the country.”

Harris, had she won, would have made history as the first woman U.S. President, as well as the first Black woman to hold the U.S. Presidency. However, her opponent, Trump, the former president, painted Harris as the sole reason behind the perceived immigration/border problem in the country. Trump painted Harris as a person who oversaw massive inflation in the U.S., where people were angry about high prices on groceries, gas and rent.

Those portrayals didn’t work on most African Americans, but it worked with two-thirds of all Whites without a college degree.

According to NBC News exit polls conducted in 10 key states, including Pennsylvania, 45 percent of Whites with a college degree voted for Trump, but the number jumped to 66 percent of Whites without a college degree who voted for Trump. Overall, 57 percent of White voters in the 10 key states voted for Trump, while just 13 percent of the Black voters in the key states voted for Trump. Eighty-five percent of Black voters in the key states voted for Harris.

As for Latinos, the majority, 52 percent to 46 percent, voted for Harris over Trump. But Latino men voted for Trump at a rate of 55 percent to 43 percent for Harris, which was a talking point in the days after the election.

Digging deeper into the African American exit poll numbers, 91 percent of Black women in the key states voted for Harris, and 77 percent of Black men did the same. Twenty-one percent of Black men in the key states voted for Trump.

In Pennsylvania specifically, NBC News exit polls show that 89 percent of all Blacks voted for Harris. Ninety-seven percent of Black women in the state voted for Harris, but just 72 percent of Black men voted for Harris. A staggering 26 percent of Black men in Pennsylvania voted for Trump, according to the NBC News exit polls. Only three percent of Black women in Pennsylvania voted for Trump.

In Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, voters easily chose Harris over Trump, 59.2 percent to 39.4 percent. The City of Pittsburgh overwhelmingly voted for Harris, as did places like Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg, Swissvale, Forest Hills, Churchill, Mt. Lebanon, Duquesne and McKeesport. Harris also won Monroeville, Oakmont, Verona, O’Hara Township, Etna and Upper St. Clair. Trump won the majority in places like Plum, Jefferson Hills, Findlay Township and North Fayette.

Overall, Trump won the election with 312 electoral votes nationally, to 226 for Harris, along with the popular vote. Trump won all the swing states, including the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. While Trump lost Pennsylvania in 2020 by 80,000 votes, he won Pennsylvania in this election (2024) by 150,000 votes.

Serena Washington of East Liberty told the Courier that she felt more Black people “could have gotten out there and voted,” while Jamar Everett of Pittsburgh told the Courier that Blacks have no choice now but to give Trump a chance “to change things up.”

So, what was the reason that Harris lost to Trump? Everyone seems to have an opinion as to why. From the barber shop to the beauty salon, from the workplace to the television. It’s because White America refused to have a Black woman be the leader of the country. It’s because Americans truly believed that Trump would be better for the economy and their pocketbooks than Harris. It’s because Harris never distanced herself fully enough from Joe Biden, the current president whose favorability rating was in the tank.

Will we ever know the actual reason?

“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris said during her concession speech at Howard University, Nov. 6. “The fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people; a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best; that is a fight I will never give up.”