A standard election map gives a county that went 51 percent for one candidate the same color as one that went 85. That flattening hides most of what happened in 2024. For a third presidential election in a row, I turned the vote into terrain, with height standing in for support. Earlier versions cover 2016 and 2020.
These terrain maps show where support for each candidate rose and sank in 2024. Trump gained across most of the country and flipped Miami-Dade and Maricopa counties, while Democratic strongholds such as Detroit’s Wayne County lost height even where Harris still won.
Key takeaways
Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226.
Miami-Dade went Republican for the first time since 1988, with Trump taking 55.2% to Harris’s 43.8%.
Wayne County, Michigan, moved from 68% Biden to 62% Harris.
Maricopa County, Arizona, went from a 45,109-vote Biden win to a 71,515-vote Trump win.
Harris underperformed in safely blue cities while Trump widened his margins in rural areas.
What does an election terrain map show?
On the Trumpland map, height follows Trump’s vote share. Anywhere he fell under 50 percent becomes water, and the deeper the water, the stronger Harris did there.
The Harris Archipelago flips the logic. Democratic strongholds rise as islands in a Republican sea, and island height follows her vote share.
Where did Trump’s mountains grow between 2020 and 2024?
Drag the slider to compare the two elections.
Miami-Dade shows the shift best. A Democratic bay in 2020, it is dry land in 2024, with Trump taking 55.2 percent to Harris’s 43.8. No Republican had carried the county since 1988 Nationally, 54 percent of Latino men backed Trump in Edison Research’s exit poll, up from 36 percent in 2020.
Around Phoenix the water drained. Biden carried Maricopa County by 45,109 votes in 2020, and Trump took it by 71,515 in 2024. On the map, the ridge through central Pennsylvania also grew taller.
What happened to the Democratic islands?
Slide between 2020 and 2024 to watch the islands change.
Detroit lost height. Harris won Wayne County with 62 percent, down from Biden’s 68. In the city itself she collected 221,629 votes against Biden’s 233,908. Turnout among registered Detroit voters was 47 percent.
Atlanta held up better. Fulton County gave Harris 71.9 percent, against about 73 percent for Biden. Some Atlanta suburbs were among the only places in the country that moved toward Democrats.
Love this. Fantastic maps. Such a great/creative idea.
Brian
1 year ago
The Democrat map looks like what the Left has been warning us about for decades on rising sea levels due to global warming. But in this case it is due to a drastic change in the political climate! These are great maps!
Love this. Fantastic maps. Such a great/creative idea.
The Democrat map looks like what the Left has been warning us about for decades on rising sea levels due to global warming. But in this case it is due to a drastic change in the political climate! These are great maps!