Rantz: Donald Trump shattered the hot streak of Clallam County

It was a shoo-in! The pollsters who “always accurately predict the winner” and the infallible bellwether county that never misses a call did, in fact, miss. Clallam County’s hot streak is over, with Donald Trump clinching victory over Kamala Harris, shattering its hot streak like he shattered the sanity of every MSNBC host.

Clallam County has voted for the winning presidential candidate since 1980. It stood as America’s supposedly last true bellwether. But this time, they apparently fell hard for Kamala Harris. How did that work out for them? Not so well, based on the vote results so far.

Left-wing media did everything short of dancing on air to pretend that support for Donald Trump was a mere mirage.

They assured us that black voters would turn out in droves for Harris — no questions asked. Black male voter problem? Barack Obama scolded them! Naturally, they’d get in line.

We were told Latino voters — excuse me, “Latinx” or “Latine” voters — would never back a candidate MSNBC and their allies relentlessly labeled a “xenophobe.” Latinos, from Joy Reid to Joy Behar, supposedly support open borders.

Young voters? Of course they’d go towards Harris. Haven’t you seen the posts by DNC-backed 20-something social media influencers with copy that sounds like it was written by a 57-year-old consultant in DC? It shows true energy!

Most of all, we were told that women were angry and would go to the mat to defend “women’s rights” in the form of unlimited access to abortion. Didn’t you see the totally legitimate, not-at-all-agenda-driven poll from Ann Selzer in Iowa? The one that assured us this would be a defining issue?

Yet here we are, with all these confident predictions proven hollow. It seems America wasn’t as “locked in” as the experts had us believe.

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Media sold us a bill of goods this presidential election

In The Seattle Times, columnist Danny Westneat framed Kamala Harris’s supposed victory as driven by the outraged women of Clallam County, seething over the issue of abortion rights. According to Westneat, “women, especially senior women, have been surging out to vote” in the area. It appears he only spoke to one of those seething women.

“It’s because we’re mad,” 69-year-old Dorothy Bertsch from Sequim told him, adding that her main motivation for backing Harris was that “they’re taking women’s rights away.”

The problem? No one’s “taking women’s rights away” in Washington. Even nationally, a handful of states have implemented abortion restrictions, but access is still widespread — and Roe’s overturn hasn’t exactly put a dent in abortion numbers; in fact, they’ve increased since the ruling. But the narrative Westneat and his allies pushed was that these supposedly “furious” women would be Trump’s downfall.

“Older women have become a voting powerhouse in recent elections,” Ben Anderstone, a Seattle-based political consultant, told Westneat. “They’ve been shifting blue, mostly because of Donald Trump’s unusual weakness with them.”

No Washington county, Clallam County or otherwise, reflects the mood of the country

Labeling Clallam County the “swingiest place in the nation,” Westneat suggested that “senior women there have been fueling a blue tilt of late.” Maybe Westneat should try talking to more women or more seniors, and maybe outside the Washington bubble.

It’s not Clallam County’s fault. Washington voters don’t represent the national mood. They don’t even represent the mood of mainstream Democrats. Democrats here are far to the left; Seattle is locked in a socialist-progressive stranglehold. Tacoma and Spokane are racing to see how far left they can go, and the consequences for everyday people be damned.

Should we really look to a county in Washington to predict where the country is headed in a presidential race? Clallam County’s perfect record backing 11 presidential campaigns in a row was no more than a lucky streak (and maybe once all the votes are cast Clallam County goes Trump). But anyone can catch a hot streak from time to time — I’ve hit them myself in Vegas. But there’s a reason luck is fleeting.

Out of 31 presidents since Clallam County was established in 1854, they’ve only called it right about 35% of the time. Sure, a .355 batting average might be great in baseball, but for accuracy in politics? Not so much.

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