The year 2024 was one for the history books, and 538’s visual journalists and reporters were hard at work explaining the data behind the news with visualizations and interactives. Here are 26 charts that encapsulate the themes of the year, from our flagship election forecast to visuals that show where Americans stood on the issues that dominated the campaign. (And, if you’re a fan of our work, check out what we did in 2023 and in years past.)
Forecasts
PHOTO: From 538’s 2024 presidential election forecast. ()
From 538’s 2024 presidential election forecast.
PHOTO: From 538’s 2024 Senate forecast. ()
From 538’s 2024 Senate forecast.
PHOTO: From 538’s 2024 House forecast. ()
From 538’s 2024 House forecast.
PHOTO: From 538’s 2024 presidential election forecast. ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From 538’s 2024 presidential election forecast.
PHOTO: From 538’s “what-if” interactive. ()
From 538’s “what-if” interactive.
Post-election analysis
From 538’s election-night live blog.
CHART: The 2024 election took longer to project than most ()
From “The 2024 presidential election was close, not a landslide.”
CHART: Where Democrats lost the most ground ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From “Where Have All The Democrats Gone?”
CHART: Lower-income counties shifted right, higher-income counties shifted left ()
From “Where Have All The Democrats Gone?”
CHART: Gender gaps grew in groups with lower Trump support ()
From “What the gender gap tells us about Trump’s win.”
From “Democrats aren’t alone — incumbent parties have lost elections all around the world.”
CHART: Trifectas are usually short-lived ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From “Republicans won the House. Now comes the hard part.”
The campaign
CHART: What’s each Republican candidate’s path to the GOP nomination? ()
From 538’s Republican primary delegate benchmarks interactive.
PHOTO: A chart showing the number of campaign events and share of counties visited for each active GOP presidential candidate in Iowa and New Hampshire. ()
From “Can a busy campaign schedule save Trump’s GOP primary opponents?”
CHART: Trump has held more campaign events than Harris ()
From “Trump is holding more campaign events than Harris.”
CHART: What would it take to turn blue states red or red states blue? ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From 538’s Swing-O-Matic interactive.
From “Why VP debates aren’t all that important.”
Government
From “How often every member of Congress voted with Biden in 2023.”
CHART: The 8 types of Democrats and Republicans in the House ()
From “The 8 Types Of Democrats And Republicans In The House.”
CHART: Support of partisan and bipartisan vote types differed among clusters of each party ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From “The 8 Types Of Democrats And Republicans In The House.”
PHOTO: A chart showing the frequency and duration of short-term government funding extensions in each fiscal year since 1999. ()
From “Why it always feels like the government is about to shut down.”
From “Why the Supreme Court tends to release unpopular decisions late in its term.”
PHOTO: Trump’s Cabinet misfires are off to an early start. ()
From “Trump’s Cabinet woes are back, earlier than ever.”
Issues
PHOTO: Two charts showing border patrol encounters and the percent of Americans selecting immigration as the most important issue each month in 2023. ()
Advertisement
Advertisement
From “You can probably guess why Trump is dead set against the border bill.”
From “Biden has forgiven billions in student loans. Voters may not have noticed.”
From “Why abortion didn’t lead Democrats to victory in the 2024 election.”
26 charts that helped explain 2024 in politics originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
