U.S. newspaper endorsements for the Democratic presidential candidate have dipped by more than 60% this year since 2016 after VP Kamala Harris became the party’s frontrunner, according to a rough estimate by Fox News Digital.
In 2016, more than 240 newspapers endorsed Hillary Clinton, while only 20 endorsed Trump. In 2020, 14 newspapers endorsed Trump, and 120 endorsed Biden.
This year, nearly 80 newspapers endorsed Harris, and fewer than 10 endorsed Trump.
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Notable endorsements for Harris include the Winston-Salem Chronicle, New York Times, Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Denver Post, The Las Vegas Sun, Los Angeles Sentinel, Seattle Times, The Star-Ledger, Tennessee Tribune, Scientific American and San Antonio Express.
Endorsements for Trump include the New York Post, The Washington Times and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The plummeting Democratic endorsements come as the Los Angeles Times editorial board, which endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, decided not to endorse a presidential candidate this year, according to a new report Tuesday.
An LA Times spokesperson declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the report, saying, “We do not comment on internal discussions or decisions about editorials or endorsements.”
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The LA editorial board issued presidential endorsements from the 1880s through 1972, only returning to the practice to endorse Obama in 2008. Since then, it has exclusively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates.
The LA Times released its statewide and nationwide endorsements last week, including Democratic candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.
Newspapers have traditionally endorsed candidates in elections since the 19th century, when papers were more closely tied to political parties. Over time, newspapers shifted to become more independent of the party apparatus, and editorial boards for the newspapers took over endorsements, with the ideological lean of the board often an indicator of the endorsement outcome.
Several newspapers that historically endorsed Republican candidates either endorsed Biden or declined to endorse any candidate in 2020. The Arizona Republic, which had endorsed Republicans for decades, was one of the few that endorsed Biden.
Some publications that had never endorsed a presidential candidate before, like USA Today, broke with tradition in 2020 to also endorse Biden.
Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
