Tag: suburban voters

How the Suburbs Moved Away From Trump

New York Times logo

Suburban counties across the country turned away from President Trump in this election. That includes suburbs in the Midwest and the Sun Belt, in inner-ring counties and those farther out, in predominantly white communities and more diverse ones.

Suburban counties that were already Democratic-leaning before 2020 tilted more so. And many that were deeply Republican nudged several points away from the president.

This graphic shows how these counties voted in preliminary results this year, compared with 2016. Collectively, they shifted up — toward Joe Biden. That movement, apparent across battleground states, has been crucial to lifting Mr. Biden to the presidency. Continue reading.

Tracing the roots of city boy Trump’s racist ‘suburban dream’ nonsense — all the way to Rush Limbaugh

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It’s no surprise that the current occupant of the White House is running for reelection on racism. Given his track record, it would be a surprise if he weren’t. Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric has always centered on fearmongering around crime, going back not just to the start of his presidential campaign in 2015, but back to the 1980s. Now he’s at it again, this time with a focus on the suburbs and, in anachronistic language that evokes June Cleaver or Carol Brady, ”suburban housewives.”

Based on his rambling, Trump seems to think the suburbs are still filled with white women in aprons making their kids PB&J on Wonder BreadTM with the crusts cut off, dutifully fixing after-work martinis for their husbands. Trump thinks he can scare those white-lady aprons right off with tales of Black and brown criminals descending upon their neighborhoods, and present himself as the white (orange?) savior who will keep their neighborhoods safe by keeping them white. This particular dog whistle is not one Trump invented, of course. Among others, Rush Limbaugh has been blowing it for years.

Let’s start with Trump’s current campaign. On June 30, President Shitgibbon tweeted that he was “studying the AFFH housing regulation that is having a devastating impact” on the suburbs. He also claimed that his opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, wants to make things “much worse”—correction: “MUCH WORSE.” Trump added that he “may END!” the AFFH. Continue reading.

House Dems seek to hold suburbs as Trump’s slide worries GOP

WASHINGTON — In a suburban Houston congressional district that backed President Donald Trump in 2016, a twice-elected Republican sheriff is battling a Democrat who’s the son of an immigrant from India. To Democrats, that smells like an opportunity.

Things are flipped in central New York, where freshman Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi faces the Republican he ousted two years ago from a district near Syracuse that includes smaller cities like Binghamton and Utica. Trump won there easily, and Republicans say his place atop the ticket will help propel Claudia Tenney back to Congress.

The tale of two districts 1,600 miles apart spotlights that many pivotal House races hinge on suburban voters. While some like Brindisi’s have a more rural, blue collar feel than the diverse, better educated one outside Houston, an overriding factor will be how Trump is viewed in the district.

And that’s a problem for the GOP. Continue reading.

Alienated by Trump, Suburban Voters Sour on G.O.P. in Battle for the House

New York Times logoHouse Republicans are on the defensive in suburban strongholds as voters reject President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.

BALLWIN, Mo. — For Heather Vaughn, a substitute teacher and graduate student, the decision last month to place the black sign with colorful lettering in her front yard — the one that said, “Black Lives Matter” and “Science is Real” — felt like an act of courage.

In previous years, such a placard might have drawn unwanted attention in her suburban, tree-lined neighborhood, where expansive homes with manicured gardens had been decked out with blue ribbons and signs of support for the police. But now it is one of three on her block that reflect support for nationwide protests against police brutality and a growing sense of unease with President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.

A self-described independent, Ms. Vaughn, 41, had supported Representative Ann Wagner, her Republican congresswoman, in past years, but more recently soured on her. This year, given her frustration and anger with Mr. Trump, Ms. Vaughn is confident she will not vote for Ms. Wagner and is wrestling with whether she in good conscience can vote again for any of the local Republicans down the ballot whom she would normally back. Continue reading.

Trump faces severe suburban slump

The Hill logoPresident Trump is facing a suburban slump among voters who sent him to the White House.

Recent polls show Trump’s numbers have slipped substantially among suburban voters, who Trump carried in 2016 by a 49 percent to 45 percent margin over Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls conducted across the country.

Just 32 percent of all suburban voters now say they would definitely vote to reelect the president, according to a new Grinnell College poll conducted by the Iowa-based pollster Ann Selzer. Another 14 percent said they would consider someone else, and 51 percent said they would definitely vote for a candidate other than Trump.

View the complete October 29 article by Reid Wilson on The Hill website here.

Suburban anxiety drives GOP on guns

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and members of his caucus are tiptoeing toward legislation addressing gun violence amid deep anxiety over eroding GOP support in suburbs across the country.

Expanded background checks and other modest proposals to address gun violence have strong support among swing voters in the suburbs, whom McConnell sees as crucial to keeping control of Republican-held swing Senate seats.

Republican sources close to McConnell say he sees a political benefit to moving a bipartisan measure in response to a spate of mass shootings this year, and that he acknowledges the politics surrounding expanded background checks have shifted in recent months.

View the complete September 10 article by Alex Bolton on The Hill website here.

‘They’re afraid’: Suburban voters in red states threaten GOP’s grip on power

Washington Post logoBROOKHAVEN, GA — Republicans face a reckoning in the red-state suburbs that have long been a bedrock for the party, propelled by the stormy confluence of President Trump’s searing racial attacks, economic turbulence and frustration with government inaction after last weekend’s deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

The GOP lost its House majority in 2018 after it fared poorly with suburban voters, particularly women. Party leaders are increasingly alarmed that they have made little progress winning them back. Instead, Trump’s incessant feuds, his hard-line position on immigration — including federal raids that left children without their parents — and the stock market’s tumult amid his trade standoff with China threaten to further alienate suburban voters ahead of the 2020 campaign, even in states that have traditionally elected Republicans.

Republican leaders also worry that Trump’s dramatic policy moves and Twitter outbursts — such as last month’s racist remarks about four minority women in Congress — could prod more suburban GOP lawmakers to head for the exits rather than mount a defense, following in the footsteps of several Texas Republicans and others who have decided not to seek reelection.

View the complete August 9 article by Robert Costa on The Washington Post website here.

Suburban voters angry with Trump threaten GOP’s grip on House

The following article by Kari Lydersen and Michael Scherer was posted on the Washington Post website March 26, 2018:

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a six-term congressman, faces a tough challenge in November’s midterm elections, as Democrats and moderates opposed to President Trump are energized in his suburban Chicago district. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. — Control of the U.S. House will be decided in America’s next political battleground of aboveground pools, bike trails, and oversized Tudor and Victorian houses full of working professionals like Karrie Sullivan, a Republican voter who cast her primary ballot last week for a Democrat.

In a suburb outside of Chicago, Sullivan is determined to replace her congressman, six-term Rep. Peter J. Roskam (R), whom she has supported in the past. His sin, she said, was his affiliation with President Trump.

“Just the lack of respect for women, the authoritarianism, it’s too much,” said Sullivan, 47, a digital consultant. “As a professional woman, it’s very difficult for me to reconcile.” Continue reading “Suburban voters angry with Trump threaten GOP’s grip on House”

Suburbs Rebel Against Trump, Threatening Republicans in Congress

The following article by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin was posted on the New York Times website November 8, 2017:

RICHMOND, VA — The American suburbs appear to be in revolt against President Trump after a muscular coalition of college-educated voters and racial and ethnic minorities dealt the Republican Party a thumping rejection on Tuesday and propelled a diverse class of Democrats into office.

From the tax-obsessed suburbs of New York City to high-tech neighborhoods outside Seattle to the sprawling, polyglot developments of Fairfax and Prince William County, Va., voters shunned Republicans up and down the ballot in off-year elections. Leaders in both parties said the elections were an unmistakable alarm bell for Republicans ahead of the 2018 campaign, when the party’s grip on the House of Representatives may hinge on the socially moderate, multiethnic communities near major cities. Continue reading “Suburbs Rebel Against Trump, Threatening Republicans in Congress”

Suburban G.O.P. Voters Sour on Party, Raising Republican Fears for 2018

The following article by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin was posted on the New York Times website April 12, 2017:

Democrat James Thompson hugs a supporter, Djuan Wash, at the Murdock Theater in Wichita, Kan., on Tuesday after losing to Republican Ron Estes in a special congressional election. Credit Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — A gray mood has settled over conservative-leaning voters in some of the country’s most reliably Republican congressional districts, as the party’s stumbles in Washington demoralize them and leave lawmakers scrambling to energize would-be supporters in a series of off-year elections.

While the next nationwide elections are not until 2018, Republicans have grown fearful that these voters are recoiling from what they see as lamentable conditions in Washington: a government entirely in Republican hands that has failed to deliver on fundamental goals like overhauling the health care system.

Early missteps by President Trump and congressional leaders have weighed heavily on voters from the party’s more affluent wing, anchored in right-of-center suburbs around major cities in the South and Midwest. Never beloved in these precincts, Mr. Trump appears to be struggling to maintain support from certain voters who backed him last year mainly as a way of defeating Hillary Clinton. Continue reading “Suburban G.O.P. Voters Sour on Party, Raising Republican Fears for 2018”