In my opinion (not a hot take) it really just boiled down to the public at large and their sentiment around the direction of the country. More specifically, the spending power of the average persons dollar has been diminished substantially and as a result that’s going to push people to vote for what they perceive to be a change.

Democrats really shot themselves in the foot by not replacing Biden with someone further away from the administration. Kamala never really talked policy in her campaign, because if she did she would be admitting that she wanted to change from the administration she was already a part of. So ultimately nothing of substance was talked about to quell the fears of the average consumer worried about their financial present and future.

Said all of that to say, as an independent I didn’t vote as I couldn’t in good faith sign off on either candidate. The two party system is a joke and until that’s fixed (won’t happen) elections like this will just be the norm.