Once one of the country’s ‘bluest’ counties, The Bronx takes a dramatic shift to the right

For the past several decades, The Bronx was considered to be one of the ‘bluest’ counties in the US with an overwhelming majority of the electorate as registered Democrats and consistently and overwhelmingly voting for the Democratic candidate in presidential elections.

In 2008, almost 89% of Bronx voters voted for Obama with almost 92% voting for him for his re-election in 2012 solidly locking in The Bronx as one of the most Democratic counties in the country.

In 2016 when Trump was first elected, the trend continued to be roughly the same with 88% voting for Hillary Clinton and only 10% for Trump but in 2020, the total percent of voters for the Democratic ticket dropped by 5 percentage points swinging over to Trump who managed to get 15.9% of voters.

But last Tuesday, The Bronx took a dramatic shift to the right with a whopping 27% of the electorate voting for Trump and representing by far the largest increase in New York City from the previous presidential cycle with a 35% jump from 2016 with Kamala Harris only receiving 73% of the vote.

While many people, especially the Democratic establishment are in shock at the dramatic shift across the country and here in our own city and borough, it really shouldn’t be too surprising and perhaps the canary in the coal mine was the defeat of Democratic Councilmember Marjorie Velasquez last year by Republican Kristy Marmorato who became the first Republican elected in The Bronx in almost 50 years.

For decades, Democrats have banked on the immigrant community of New York City and The Bronx as a solid, liberal voting block but the results of the 2024 elections have upended those notions not just in our home borough but perhaps across the country as well.

America voted and decided to elect a convicted felon and a rapist as their leader. Someone who has been conning people for decades and he has now once again conned his way to the most powerful position on the planet.

With Republicans controlling every branch of our government come January, the consequences of the most consequential election in our lifetimes will soon be felt and known across the country and the world.