Geoffrey Ingersoll is former editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal and new director of the National Journalism Center at Young America’s Foundation. Courtesy | Geoffrey Ingersoll, X (formerly Twitter)

Former President Donald Trump’s reelection this year is one of the greatest comebacks in political history, editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller Geoffrey Ingersoll said in a speech hosted by the Dow Journalism Program Nov. 7.

“What happened is that Donald Trump won a plurality of voting demographics — demographics unseen in modern politics,” Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll’s speech, “Making Sense of the 2024 Election: An After-Action Report,” addressed the shift in American politics, most notably in the recent presidential election. 

“In case you haven’t been keeping score, this realignment looks like conservatives controlling Congress, the Senate, the White House, and the Supreme Court of the United States,” Ingersoll said. “So, how did we get here? Well, a big part of it is loss of trust, and I tend to agree that this plurality that Trump got is a stunning rebuke of liberal excesses and liberal politics.”

Ingersoll said national political bases, as well as everyday Americans, have shifted politically. 

“Crime, immigration, economics, foreign policy, education, all working class stuff, are all stuff that the liberals ditched because they thought they were going to be able to get a bunch of immigrants,” Ingersoll said. “Whatever they thought their new, cool, core cohort was, they were totally wrong, and Trump realigned politics.”

Clark Judge, a Hillsdale resident and former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, said he enjoyed Ingersoll’s speech and thought it was timely. 

“Michigan turning red was not particularly surprising for me,” Judge said. “I felt that what you heard this evening about the whole realignment of American politics was coming up for a while.”

Ingersoll said he voted for former President Barack Obama in 2008 for the same reasons he voted for Trump. 

“Obama ran on restricting immigration, trade skepticism, and ending the war. He was aggressive,” Ingersoll said. “That’s why he got my vote, and I truly deeply confused my conservative cohorts when I tell them I voted for Obama for the same reason I voted for Trump.”

Senior Sarah Katherine Sisk said she found the speech fascinating, especially Ingersoll’s voting history.

“I thought it was interesting that he talked about being one of the only news executives in Washington, D.C., that probably has a mixed voting history,” Sisk said. “He was sort of able to explain through his own personal experiences and everything, these causes of the realignment.”

On Monday, Ingersoll announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller. On Dec. 4, he will become the director of the National Journalism Center, which trains aspiring journalists. 

Ingersoll said the outcome of this election was a victory for the entire United States.

“I think this is the first election, at least in my lifetime, that the winner was not just a man, it was us,” Ingersoll said. “It was normal people. It was Americans. The real winner, after all of this, was you guys.”