06/20/11
The White Working Class Will Determine the Election Ruy Teixeira
Each election cycle there occurs a tired ritual, in which
pundits and reporters rediscover that yes, indeed, there are still a lot of
white working class voters in America, and they represent a serious
vulnerability for the Democrats. But just this once, let’s skip the period where
everyone initially ignores this group and cut straight to the chase: There will
be a lot of white working class voters showing up at the polls next November,
and the degree to which they support (or abandon) President Obama could very
well make or break his reelection.In 2008, during his otherwise-solid election victory, Obama lost the white working class vote by 18 points. In 2010, however, things got much worse: Congressional Democrats’ experienced a catastrophic 30 point deficit among the same group. While the first number is a figure Obama could live with repeating, the second could very well prove fatal.
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