The most misunderstood story of 2016 is how Donald Trump won the industrial Midwest. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania hadn’t voted for a Republican since the 1980s, and most polls showed Hillary Clinton ahead by comfortable margins in those states. Ohio went for Obama in the last two presidential elections, as did Iowa. Trump won them all.
Over the past year, I spent time covering the election in three of these states, most recently in Ohio and Pennsylvania, writing about how party loyalties were shifting among working-class Democratic voters. Trump’s election was fueled by high voter turnout in rural and suburban communities in these Midwestern states, especially among former Democrats and Independents.
Read Full Article »