Josh Kraushaar: “The seeds of Democratic renewal can be found in the affluent neighborhoods of Atlanta and its northern suburbs, where a quiet protest against Donald Trump’s Republican Party took place on Election Day. The diverse, moderate-minded constituents of Health and Human Services Secretary designee Tom Price took a markedly different view of Trump than working-class white voters in the Rust Belt. Mitt Romney carried this district with 61 percent of the vote in 2012—a seat that The Almanac of American Politics dubbed a ‘safe Republican district’—but Trump eked out just a 1-point win over Hillary Clinton in 2016.”
“The results from the Atlanta suburbs offer Democrats a playbook for how to compete in the future—win over socially liberal, fiscally conservative voters who traditionally lined up with Republicans. This would pair the diverse Obama coalition with voters who have favored free markets and a tough-minded foreign policy. It would be a throwback to the centrist policies of Bill Clinton, along with a full-throated embrace of a diversifying America. It would concede some of the white working-class gains to Trump, while making an aggressive push to bring college-educated suburbanites into the Democratic fold.”
Save to Favorites