Mia Cortés Castro, Contributing Photographer

For Connecticut’s progressive voters who were skeptical of Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, President-elect Donald Trump’s win showcases Harris’s failure to differentiate herself from Joe Biden.

Since the beginning of the 2024 election cycle, left-wing Americans have been vocally critical of the Biden administration’s policies regarding Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed over 41,000 lives in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023. In the run-up to the presidential primary elections in the spring, when President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign was still ongoing, pro-Palestinian organizers waged campaigns encouraging voters to vote for the “uncommitted” option on their ballots to indicate disapproval of Biden. 

Criticism of Biden transferred quickly to Harris when she entered the race following Biden’s stepping down in July. While protest vote campaigns were less prevalent in the general election — Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven and other Connecticut-based groups chose to focus their energy away from electoral organizing — some progressive voters still opted to vote for candidates alternative to the Democratic ticket.

Now, with Trump’s second term looming, progressive organizers are encouraging recognition of Harris’ flaws, while firmly denying their protests affected the election’s outcome.

“It would be contrary to the data that we’ve now seen, to suggest that there was one reason [Harris lost]”, Hamden Town Councilor Abdul Osmanu said. “I think it’s just the wholesale communication, the lack of actual substantive policy on the differentiation from the Biden administration and Vice President Harris.”

Osmanu, a member of Connecticut’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter, was active in the Palestine solidarity coalition that organized the Vote Uncommitted CT campaign in April, ahead of the Democratic presidential primary. When the campaign garnered over 7,600 votes for the uncommitted option in Connecticut — including 21 percent of the Democratic electorate in New Haven — organizers hailed it as a victory.

Though the Vote Uncommitted CT coalition did not organize for a third-party option ahead of this week’s election, some Palestine solidarity rallies this fall platformed Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, or Claudia De la Cruz, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s write-in candidate. Two weeks before the election, Osmanu told the News that if he were to vote that day, he would not vote for Harris.

Osmanu, who voted in person on Tuesday, declined to say how he voted.

“I will give some level of credit to the Biden administration in 2020 for at least attempting to build a coalition with progressives, but it’s kind of just lacking here,” Osmanu said. “There’s inflation, and the genocide that has gone on has created certain fractures, but I’m not sure that you can point out to one specific fault or error that’s led to this level of results, which were shocking, even to me.”

Many analysts believe that Stein’s 2016 presidential campaign lost Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the presidency and helped usher in Trump’s first term. In 2016, Stein’s campaign garnered 31,072 votes in Wisconsin, 51,463 votes in Michigan and 49,941 votes in Pennsylvania. If those voters had instead cast their ballots for Clinton, she would have overcome Trump’s marginal leads in the three crucial swing states and won the electoral vote.

Stein has dismissed these claims, often noting that many of her supporters would not have voted for the Democratic candidate even if she had not run.

Stein’s campaign was far less successful in 2024. As of Thursday night, with over 95 percent of votes reported, her campaign has won 12,266 votes in Wisconsin, 44,683 votes in Michigan and 33,622 votes in Pennsylvania — not enough in any state for Harris to overcome Trump’s lead, if those voters instead voted for her.

As of Thursday night, Harris lost the popular vote by a margin of more than three points. 

Chris Garaffa was also active in the Vote Uncommitted CT campaign in April. They voted for De la Cruz in the election.

“Claudia has been one of the people from the beginning, from before October 2023, who has been out there for Palestine and in solidarity with Palestine and has always been a steadfast supporter for the Palestinian people in their struggle,” Garaffa said, explaining his choice to vote for De la Cruz.

Garaffa believes Biden’s choice to “appoint” Harris as his successor upon leaving the race is contrary to democracy, and thinks that Harris’s loss is the product of this succession “coming back to bite” the Democratic party.

Paul Garlinghouse, a member of New Haven’s Green Party, voted for Stein in the presidential election. Garlinghouse said he feels “deeply concerned” about Trump’s victory, especially for undocumented residents or people seeking asylum in the United States. He also believes Harris’s unchanging support for the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, which he called “unconscionable,” was a strategic error for Democrats.

Though Garlinghouse believes strongly in advancing Green Party campaigns — including his own, for the New Haven registrar of voters — he stressed that he does not view Harris and Trump as equivalently distasteful options. When asked how he would advise a Pennsylvania voter to choose between Harris or Stein on Election Day, Garlinghouse chuckled.

“I’d have 100 percent said to vote for Kamala,” he said.

Over 14,000 Connecticut residents voted for Stein this year.