Donald Trump will become the nation's 47th president after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday in no small part to the increase in support from racial minority communities, according to Associated Press data.

Trump gained almost an 8% increase in support from Black voters compared to 2020, and 5% more from Latino voters, up to 40%. And among Asian American voters, he gained 3% compared to his showing in 2020. The economy was identified as a key issue in this race.  

“Inflation has hit the people in middle to lower incomes really hard,” said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship.

Reeher said it’s people of color who have been most heavily impacted by inflation. 

“And the economic recovery and the economic growth that we have been seeing in recent months is not something that they have experienced as fully,” said Reeher.

“But the numbers do not lie. When President Trump was in office, we did see record lows for Black unemployment. When President Trump was in office, we did see 7 million new jobs created pre-COVID,” said Joe Pinion, a former U.S. Senate Candidate.

Pinion said the needs of Black communities and particularly Black men, have been placed on the back burner. 

In addition to money concerns, Reeher said immigration helped Trump appeal to his voters even amongst Latinos who came here legally.

“From many Latinos who were being interviewed [the feeling] was, 'It took me a long time to apply to get in. Now, this is happening much more easily for other people, it’s not fair, it wasn’t fair to me or my family,'” said Reeher.

“When people hear over and over again that there is this growing support for things or someone who is contrary to everything they need and contrary to their very being, sometimes people are attracted by it,” said Donna Lie Berman, executive director of New York Civil Liberties Union.

Berman said Trump’s hard-hitting, aggressive ads fed into people’s concerns. 

“It takes a lot of hard work to push aside the cacophony of this constant fear mongering, this constant message of hate and stand up for our values,” said Berman.

“We have witnessed a Democratic party that tells you that the Republican party is the greatest threat to your outcomes, to your future, to your living and dying and then very rarely ends up fulfilling the promises they make to those communities to get them to vote for them for them,” said Pinion.