• In the 2024 election, Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris' 226 electoral votes.
• Each candidate sought to present themselves as the better steward of the economy.
• But President-elect Trump emerged victorious, sweeping the seven major battleground states.

Headed into Election Day, the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump appeared deadlocked, with polls showing a close race across the seven swing states.

But Trump came out on top, with the president-elect sweeping the battleground states and making critical gains among a broad slice of the electorate, from young voters and Latino men to suburban voters and rural voters.

The president-elect's victory came as he retained his long-standing advantage on economic issues through Election Day.

Here's a look at why the 2020 race between President Joe Biden and Trump was such a departure from this year's contest between Harris and Trump.

Trump made significant inroads in the suburbs, where the economy was a key issue

In 2020, Biden emerged victorious in the suburbs, winning over voters in this key group 50% to 48%, according to CNN exit polling.

Harris was hoping that strong support from suburban voters, especially among college-educated women, would aid her, with her campaign banking that her prosecutorial background would match up well against that of Trump — who has been embroiled in an array of legal issues over his push to overturn the 2020 election results.

While Harris performed well in many of the suburbs that paved the way for Biden's 2020 election, she simply did not win by the margins she needed to overcome Trump's burst in support from white voters without college degrees, as well as the drop-off in support from Latino and Asian voters compared to the president's performance.

This year, Trump won suburban voters 51% to 47%, per CNN exit polling, a four-point edge that allowed him to hold the line in areas where Democrats were hoping to run up the score. And the shift allowed him to flip Maricopa County, and thus, win back Arizona, which had been one of Biden's most impressive victories in 2020.

Similar to other groups, the economy was critical for suburban voters, with inflation and housing costs being paramount. In Arizona, a state dominated by Phoenix and its vast Maricopa-anchored suburbs, the economy was the second-most important issue for voters, only trailing the issue of democracy.

According to CNN exit polling, 42% of the Arizona electorate said the economy was in "poor" condition, and 89% of those voters backed Trump, compared to 10% for Harris. By comparison, only 6% of respondents considered the economy to be "excellent," and 99% of those voters supported Harris, with only 1% backing Trump.

Trump hammered home an economic message centered on lowering costs, forging ahead with new housing construction on federal land, and cutting government relations that he said hampered growth. In western states like Arizona and Nevada, where housing affordability has been a major issue, the issue took on added resonance. Harris had high-profile economic proposals of her own, including a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, but it wasn't enough to swing the race.

Turnout declined in key Democratic areas

After Biden exited the race in July and Harris stepped into her role as the Democratic Party's standard bearer, she was faced with running a 107-day campaign. While Harris had been Biden's No. 2 for over three years at that point, she was still unfamiliar to a considerable slice of the electorate.

Despite Biden's decline in support with groups that had fueled his 2020 victory — which included Black, Latino, and young voters — he was a known commodity. And Harris, in many ways, had to reintroduce herself to millions of Americans who were open to backing her but had reservations about the Biden administration on issues like inflation and border security.

From Harris' first major rally as a 2024 presidential candidate in Wisconsin to her Election eve turnout push in vote-rich Philadelphia, she crisscrossed the swing states, aiming to hold on to the blue wall battleground states while also eyeing gains in the Sun Belt.

But compared to 2020, turnout declined on the Democratic side.

Four years ago, the Biden-Harris ticket won over 81 million votes, compared to 74 million votes for Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence. So far, Harris has earned just under 75 million votes, compared to a little over 77 million votes for Trump.

Democratic strength in New Jersey and New York fell sharply, with Harris faring worse than Biden in those solidly blue states.

Voters did boost their numbers in several key battlegrounds, though.

Georgia hit a turnout record of almost 5.3 million voters this year, and despite Harris losing the state by 2.2 points (50.7% to 48.5%), she earned more votes in the Peach State than Biden did when he won the state by 0.23 percent (49.47% to 49.24%) in 2020.

Harris won 2,548,017 votes in Georgia this year, compared to Biden's 2,473,633 votes four years ago. But Trump won 2,663,117 votes this year, giving him a 115,100-vote advantage over Harris.

In Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, more votes were tallied between the two major-party candidates this year compared to 2020, but this didn't benefit Harris as Democratic strength declined in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia.

For example, Harris won Philadelphia, the most populous city in Pennsylvania, by a hefty 79% to 20% margin. But in 2020, Biden won Philadelphia 81% to 18%. And while Biden earned 604,175 votes in the city, Harris currently has 568,571 votes there, according to NBC News.

Turnout fell across Philadelphia this year, allowing Trump to post gains in what has long been known as one of the most Democratic cities in the country.

• In December, two Georgia election workers won a $148M defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani.
• Thanksgiving is the one-month anniversary of Giuliani's deadline to turn over assets.
• Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have received a car and apartment without the paperwork to sell either.

Last month, a federal judge in Manhattan gave Rudy Giuliani a deadline: he had until October 28 to turn over millions of dollars in real estate, sports memorabilia, cash, and jewelry to the mother-daughter Georgia election workers he defamed after the 2020 election.

It's now exactly one month later — Thanksgiving — and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, still have little to thank him for.

Their lawyers say that, to date, the only thing they've collected free and clear are a handful of Guiliani's watches.

Yes, Giuliani has turned over his Mercedes and he has vacated his New York City apartment — but he has yet to provide Freeman and Moss with the vehicle title and co-op shares they need to turn these two assets into actual cash.

Other Giuliani assets are simply AWOL, including a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that has apparently vanished among decades of his belongings inside a storage facility in Ronkonkoma, New York.

"If they can't find it, they can't find it," Giuliani, 80, told Business Insider of Joltin' Joe's jersey on Tuesday, after a court hearing on the case. "It's in the warehouse, as far as I know."

The one-time lawyer to Donald Trump meanwhile faces contempt-of-court fines and possibly a jail term for continuing to falsely accuse Freeman and Moss of election rigging on his nightly "America's Mayor" livestreams.

Giuliani — who said Tuesday he still "consults" with the president elect — also continues to call himself a victim.

"I don't have a car, I don't have a credit card, I don't have cash," he complained to the judge in court on Tuesday. "I don't have a penny that isn't tied up by them," he said of Freeman and Moss.

Here, according to court testimony and filings, is the latest on what Giuliani has failed to turn over.

A $5.6M Manhattan apartment

Giuliani's most valuable single asset is a three-bedroom, 10th-floor, corner co-op apartment he owned outright — without a mortgage — on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

He was ordered to turn the property's proprietary lease and co-op share copies to Freeman and Moss by October 28 — along with such valuable furnishings as the signed DiMaggio jersey and signed photos of Yankees Stadium and Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson that used to hang on the apartment walls.

Giuliani's lawyers have since said he has lost his copy of the shares and lease, which are still in the name of "Judith and Rudolph Giuliani." Giuliani divorced Judith Nathan, his third wife, in 2019, but never removed her name from the paperwork when he bought out her share of the co-op, his lawyers said.

Without the updated shares and lease, the apartment cannot be sold.

As for the furnishings, Giuliani's lawyers say these were moved to a patriotic event space and storage warehouse in the Long Island hamlet of Ronkonkoma, New York.

The Freeman-Moss attorneys said Friday that they have been unable to find any of Giuliani's artwork and sports memorabilia for the apartment. If these are indeed in the warehouse, as they put it in court papers two weeks ago, they are "commingled with other property of questionable value," including Giuliani's old drapes, blankets, "Christmas supplies," and a "small cigar box."

"We've sort of run out of patience," attorney Aaron Nathan said in court Tuesday, adding his team searched the warehouse, and the sports memorabilia is still unaccounted for. On Tuesday, a judge ordered Giuliani to separate these items from his other belongings inside the warehouse.

A $3.5M Palm Beach condo

Giuliani has claimed his $3.5 million Palm Beach condo, which he also owns outright, is his primary residence and so exempted under Florida law from civil seizure.

A January 16 trial — before federal Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan — will determine if Giuliani can keep the property.

The trial will also determine if Freeman and Moss will get three Yankees World Series rings — valued at around $50,000 each — that Giuliani says are not his to turn over because he gave them to his son, Andrew, in 2018.

"I told you when I got these that they would be yours someday," the younger Giuliani recalled his father telling him, according to a sworn court filing from last month.

Freeman and Moss have subpoenaed the elder Giuliani's tax accountants, Mazars, USA, to see if he declared gifting the rings to his son.

$2M from Donald Trump's campaign

Giuliani declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon after a federal jury in Washington, DC, set his $148 judgment last December — his penalty for the racist death threats and other harassment Freeman and Moss suffered after what the judge said were his "extreme and outrageous" defamation.

A bankruptcy judge dismissed the bankruptcy case within six months, citing Giuliani's "failure to provide even basic disclosure" of his assets.

But Giuliani did disclose that his largest debt was $2 million he said the 2020 Trump campaign owed him for his work before and after the election.

It will now be up to Freeman and Moss to pursue the campaign for that money, through still more litigation if necessary.

Lauren Bacall's 1980 Mercedes

Earlier this month, after weeks of what the Freeman-Moss attorneys called "foot-dragging," Giuliani drove 1980 blue Mercedes convertible, once owned by actor Lauren Bacall, to a Florida storage unit.

Problem was, there is no title. Giuliani says he can't find it. On Tuesday, his lawyer said that the title has been lost, and that his client's efforts to get a replacement title have so far failed.

"The car keys without the title is really meaningless, US Court Judge Liman told Giuliani's attorney Joseph Cammarata.

"Your client is a competent person. He was the United States attorney for this district," added Liman. "He knows he can apply for a title for the car."

Giuliani served as US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.

Giuliani and his lawyer promised the judge Tuesday they would "immediately" secure a replacement title to the car.