Lessons from the US presidential election
Dear Editor,
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) should learn from the defeat of Kamala Harris and the Democrats in the recent US presidential election.
The lessons for the JLP are:
1) Money alone can’t win an election, you need a good message. Harris and the Democrats outspent Donald Trump and the Republicans yet they still lost the presidency, Senate, House, and popular vote.
2) Party Leader Andrew Holness and the JLP need to understand the power of podcasts. The PNP is currently leading the JLP on YouTube and TikTok. The party needs to take those platforms more seriously. Holness should seek to make appearances on The Fix, Teach Dem, Let’s Be Honest, JA Radio, etc. The party also needs to support its vloggers on YouTube more. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram alone can’t win the 2025 General Election.
3) They should not make the mistake of focusing only on the macroeconomy and ignore the microeconomy. The Democrats placed all issues over voters pockets. They even believed that abortion was a bigger issue for them than the economy.
4) The JLP needs to engage its base again, because the 2025 General Election will be a battle about who can motivate its base.
5) The JLP not only needs to have a good message, but they also need to explain to the nation that certain things that impact the economy are international and they are the better party to fix the issues.
The lessons for the PNP are:
1) Trying to demonise and focusing on just the leader of a party will sometimes backfire. Even if some Labourites are not happy, they will support their leader when he’s under attack. The PNP has not learnt from the 2016 General Election when they only focused on Holness’s mansion and lost the election.
2) Celebrities can’t win elections. Trump defeated Harris with little support from celebrities. Voters respect celebrities but don’t take them seriously when it comes to politics.
Both parties would do well to heed these lessons and learn from the Democrats’ mistakes.
Teddylee Gray
teddylee.gray@gmail.com
