The obvious way to win in 2020 is to take back Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the three states that Clinton lost by a total of only 77,000 votes. That would still be a squeaker of an election.
Some say Trump voters will never change, but that was proven wrong in the 2018 midterms, and 37% of registered voters who say they will vote in the Republican primary would like another Republican to challenge Trump. Obviously, they are not happy.
So it makes sense for the party to focus on issues that are broadly popular in swing states and, of course, with Democrats in general. I don’t yet have data for those states, but national data (here and here) will give us a pretty good idea.
- Prioritize environmental protection over economic growth. 65% to 30% percent overall agree and 82% of Democrats.
- Close corporate tax loopholes (62%) and higher taxes on the rich (60%).
- Support DACA and allow them to stay (February 20-23, 2018: 83%)
- Background checks for all gun buyers. (March 2019, 93%) It has had between 88 and 97 percent support in every Quinnipiac poll taken since February 2013.
- Run a candidate who can “heal the division in our country by bringing people with different views together to make compromises.” (78% of Democratic voters)
- there will be more to come …
Also, remember that we don’t need fancy policy issues to fire up Democrats and get them to vote. Trump has done that better than any issue can, and we can count on him to continue playing this role. But we do need the same kind of get-out-the-vote effort that worked so well in 2018.
Notes:
A new Fox News poll (June 2019) finds that only 5 percent of whites without a college degree believe that Trump’s economic policies benefit “people like me,” compared with 45 percent who believe that the benefits go to “people with more money.”
Remember Trump’s promises to bring back coal? His own Energy Department projects that coal production next year will be 17 percent lower than in 2017.
Ripped Apart
