The 2024 presidential election marked the closest New York has come to turning red in almost four decades — with Donald Trump becoming the first Republican in 20 years to keep the spread under 20 points.
Vice President Kamala Harris was leading Trump by just 11.4% of the vote, with just 6% of ballots yet to be counted, according to the state Board of Elections.
The margin between Democrats and Republicans hasn’t been as slim since Michael Dukakis beat George H. W. Bush by a narrow 4.1% in 1988 — before ultimately losing the election to the Republican contender.
Since then, Democrats have maintained a strong lead, which has still yet to drop back into the single digits, including in:
- 1992: Bill Clinton beat Bush by 15.85%
- 1996: Clinton beat Bob Dole by 28.8%
- 2000: Gore beat George W. Bush by 25%
- 2004: John Kerry beat George W. Bush by 18%
- 2008: Barack Obama beat John McCain by 36.85%
- 2012: Obama beat Mitt Romney by 28.18%
- 2016: Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 22.37%
- 2020: Joe Biden beat Trump by 23.13%
The resurging Republican support was heavily seen in New York City — with Harris suffering the weakest turnout for a Democratic candidate in the Big Apple since 1988, as well.
With more than 97% of scanners reporting at the end of Tuesday night, Trump boasted 30.44% of New York City’s vote, according to the city Board of Elections.
The chunk is the highest total Trump has seen across his three presidential bids, which have steadily grown stronger across the years — with support soaring in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens.
Most of Trump’s growing support can be tracked down to the Bronx, where ballots cast in his name soared 35% between 2020 and 2024. This year, 91,542 residents voted for the Republican compared to just 67,740 when he was up against President Biden.
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Manhattanites also made a major shift toward Trump between the past two elections: he racked up 103,060 votes this year, a 20% surge compared to 2020.
The majority of the support stemmed from Trump’s home borough of Queens, where 247,891 residents pledged their votes to the ex-president. The total marks a 16.5% surge compared to the number of votes he won in 2020.
Support for Trump also rose in Brooklyn and Staten Island but by much smaller margins, where voter turnout in his name increased by nearly 8% and just 0.7%, respectively.
Trump’s improved voter margin marks a growing support base that has been building since the Queens native started his political career in 2016, when he won just 18% of New York City’s vote. He jumped to 23% in 2020.
Nearly 2,58,600 New Yorkers turned out to vote in 2024 compared to a whopping 3,066,581 in 2020 and 2,759,389 in 2016.
Trump’s growing support base marks New York City as a shrinking Democratic stronghold in the epicenter of a deep blue state.
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Harris won just 67.7% of the Big Apple’s votes in Tuesday’s race, according to preliminary results from the city Board of Elections.
That marks a massive dip compared to her predecessors.
Biden boasted a 75.7% of the vote during his winning 2020 presidential campaign, which marked a decrease from Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 bid, in which she still managed to rack up 78% of the vote.
Despite the margin slimming, Harris managed to cruise to a victory and was projected to take home all 28 of the Empire State’s electoral votes.
