Democrats Need a Dual Strategy to Beat Trump

John Cassidy: “At least mathematically, the elements of a successful battleground-state strategy are clear. The Democratic candidate needs to excite voters in the Democratic base, particularly minorities and highly educated whites, while also trying to appeal to as many people as possible in Trump’s core demographic, which consists of whites who don’t have a four-year college degree. Contrary to some analyses, both of these things are necessary: it isn’t an either-or choice. The Democrats need a dual strategy.”

“A new study by Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin, two Democratic-leaning political scientists who have been tracking demographic and voting trends for decades, shows why. According to the study, roughly twenty-nine per cent of eligible voters next year will be nonwhite, about thirty per cent will be whites with college degrees, and slightly less than forty-two per cent will be whites without college degrees. On this basis alone, it seems likely that the Democrats could put together an electoral victory simply by turning out their base. But that is misleading, because none of the three major groups vote monolithically.”