Win or Lose, Republicans Need a Better Plan for the Future Electorate
October 25, 2020
HIT in the news
It’s not a big secret that a Republican Party struggling to adjust to demographic change was thrown a big curve by Donald Trump’s successful 2016 electoral strategy. Instead of “reaching out” to the younger, more diverse, and most rapidly growing elements of the electorate (elements notably hostile to the GOP), Trump mobilized the electorate of the past, particularly older, non-college-educated, and Evangelical white voters that he persuaded to rally to his banner in unprecedented numbers and then turned out in exactly the right states. He is pursuing mostly the same strategy for reelection, though the old folks may be rebelling against his handing of COVID-19, even as he battles to attract conservative minority men generally and Latino anti-communists specifically. The idea of actually changing his party’s policies or rhetoric to adjust to a changing electorate, however, seems to elude Team Trump, which would prefer to discourage or discard the votes of those people.
