From the Dodgers to The Simpsons, superstitions people think could determine the White House

From sporting victories to The Simpsons there are a host of ways the outcome of the race is being predicted

If superstitions are to be believed, then the outcome of the presidential election has already been decided.
Not by ballots, and not owing to some below the belt deal with Kamala Harris or Donald Trump – but by a sports game.
On Wednesday, the LA Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game Five to win the World Series four games to one.
The win marked their eighth championship in franchise history.
Now, social media theorists have claimed the side’s success could indicate that the Democrats will hold onto the White House on Nov 5.
The last time the Dodgers won the World Series was in 2020, when they beat the Tampa Bay Rays at the end of a truncated Covid-19 season.
Their victory was followed a week later by Joe Biden ousting Trump in the election.
Crystal ball-gazers have predicted that the latest Dodgers win could prove a good omen for Ms Harris, and may give her the luck she needs to win the White House.
The World Series is the latest sporting event to provoke electoral superstition, with the race on a knife edge in its final days.
Last week, the Washington Commanders’ victory over the Chicago bears was also hailed as a sign Ms Harris will win when Americans cast their votes on Tuesday.
Remarkably, the outcome of the team’s final home game before voting day has been a reliable indicator of the result in 17 of the last 21 elections.
With the team on the brink of defeat, quarterback Jayden Daniels pulled off a 52-yard Hail Mary pass in the final moments to clinch an 18-15 victory for his team.
Going back as far as 1937, victory for the Commanders, who changed their name from the Redskins in 2020, in their final home game before the election has seen the incumbent party hold onto the White House.
According to the so-called Redskins Rule, if the Commanders lost, the challenging party would prevail.
Although the Washington side’s win should, in theory, be a good omen for Democrats, the Redskins Rule has misfired in the last three election cycles.
By now, it’s a common trope that the American cartoon can somehow predict the future, with fans finding numerous moments among its 772 episodes which appear to mirror real-world events.
In an episode of The Simpsons entitled Bart to the Future which aired on March 19, 2000, Lisa Simpson is elected president and is seen wearing a purple suit with a pearl necklace and earrings.
Social media users have pointed out that Lisa’s outfit in the episode bears a striking resemblance to that of Ms Harris at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, when she wore a purple ensemble designed by Christopher John Rogers and a necklace from Wilfredo Rosado.
To add to the coincidences, Lisa’s presidency in the episode comes after that of Trump, who is said to have caused a massive deficit.
“As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from president Trump,” said Lisa as president. She is also cast as the first woman to hold the office, just as Ms Harris would be.
The social media conspiracy comes after an episode in 2008 showed Homer trying to use an electronic voting machine to vote for Barack Obama, with the machine swapping out his vote for John McCain instead – six times.
In 2012, MSNBC ran a story about how a voting machine in Pennsylvania had been swapping votes for Mr Obama to the then Republican candidate, Mitt Romney.
Not so much a superstition as a reliable prediction, but a leading historian, dubbed the “Nostrodamus” of US elections, has said Ms Harris is on track to win.
Allan Lichtman, 77, has accurately forecast every race since 1984 – other than Al Gore’s loss against president George W. Bush in 2000.
The American historian uses 13 true or false propositions that don’t take into account polling numbers to predict who will win the presidency.
Mr Lichtman said that eight of his so-called 13 keys favour Ms Harris, including the absence of a strong third-party candidate, America being in a strong economic position and a lack of scandal enshrouding the White House.
“Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States – at least that’s my prediction for the outcome of this race,” Mr Lichtman said in a video statement.
There is also the possibility of an October Surprise.
The month before the election often throws up unforeseen events that can prove to be decisive come polling day.
The term dates back to 1980, when Republican challenger Ronald Reagan feared that a last-minute deal to release American hostages held in Iran might give a boost to incumbent president Jimmy Carter.
In the event, the Iranian government’s decision dominated press coverage in the lead-up to the election, with many viewing Mr Carter’s announcement that a hostage deal would not be reached until after polls closed as a decisive factor in president Reagan’s ultimate victory.
In recent years, former secretary of state Hillary Cinton’s remarks referring to Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorables” are often viewed as a turning point in her abortive 2016 presidential campaign.
Although this came in September, it was followed the next month by a letter from James Comey, the former FBI director, accusing Ms Clinton of using a private email server in administering her public duties. The combination of the two events may well have contributed to the sinking of her electoral bid.
In 2012, Mr Obama was widely seen to have benefited from an October Surprise, after he visited Florida in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and hugged Charlie Crist, the Florida Governor.
The embrace was seen to capture Mr Obama’s ability to reach across bipartisan divides, but was later said by Mr Crist to have killed his Republican career.
This year, with two major hurricanes, Helene and Milton striking the country’s east coast in October, major news in the Middle East after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the Trump campaign making headlines when a comedian called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” and Mr Biden seeming to call Republican voters “garbage” in response, there is no shortage of potential surprises.