Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Both the Democrats and the Republicans have an alarming problem with white middle-class voters

Based on preliminary numbers, on Election Day 2012, about 91.6 million votes were cast by whites, 16.6 million by blacks, 12.7 million by Latinos and 6.3 million by other groups (not all final counts are in yet). Compare this with 2008, when there were 98.6 million white voters, 16.3 million blacks, 11 million Latinos and 5.9 million from other groups. Assuming 7 million white votes were outstanding, the African-American vote probably only increased by about 300,000 votes, or 0.2%, from 2008 to 2012. The Latino vote probably increased by a healthier 1.7 million votes, while the other category increased by about 470,000 votes. Democrats have a problem with middle-class whites showing up in weak numbers, while Republicans have a problem with whites just not showing up. Democrats have a problem with blue-collar workers and Republicans are having a problem with more rural voters like farmers.

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