More Evidence of Antipathy for Trump in the Suburbs

Yes, the Virginia suburbs around Washington DeeCee, Richmond, and Norfolk swept Democrats into the state legislature last Tuesday. And the suburbs around Louisville, Lexington, and south of Cincinnati helped elect a Democratic governor of Kentucky. "In part because of antipathy toward President Trump."

But there were other clear signals from suburbia in another state where only local candidates were on the ballot -- Pennsylvania. In the suburban counties around Philadelphia, Democratic candidates defeated the last Republicans on the five-seat Delaware County Council. Democrats took control of the board of commissioners in Bucks County for the first time since the 1980s, and they took the majority in Chester County.

Election analyst and pollster Rachel Bitecofer is preaching that the turn in suburban America against the party of Trump is not Republicans changing their votes to Democrats. No, it's independent voters and -- more significantly -- new voters coming out against Trumpism at all levels of elective office -- voters who've been disengaged, sporadic in their turn-out, or simply unregistered to vote. The election of Donald Trump has awakened them. They're there for the winning over if Democratic candidates can give them the living contrast to the Party of Trump.

I highlight this paragraph by Trip Gabriel, Jonathan Martin, and Alexander Burns in an article this morning focusing on the very noticeable swing among suburban voters:

"For Mr. Trump and other Republican leaders, the ongoing political realignment of the suburbs — which was essential to Democrats flipping Republican-held congressional seats in 2018 and retaking the House — is a disconcerting disadvantage that they have shown little ability to reverse. Democratic officials, in turn, increasingly believe they can press a center-left agenda with little risk of backlash because moderate voters will remain in their grip as long as Mr. Trump is in office and effectively make the G.O.P. a no-go zone for this demographic." [italics added]