Economic trouble in Trump country ahead of 2020
https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-flipped-counties-economic-trouble-7550d8a1-1951-4606-bde4-47f7d8d2e836.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100
"Flipped" counties in the 2016 election
Swing counties that backed President Obama, then flipped to President Trump in 2016, are struggling economically a potential problem for his re-election bid, which depends heavily on the president celebrating national economic gains.
What's happening: The Economic Innovation Group, in a report provided first to Axios, found that these "flipped" counties "experienced slower growth in employment, a slower rise in the number of [businesses], and a more pervasive decline in prime-age workers than consistently Democratic or Republican counties."
By the numbers: There are 207 counties where Obama won in both '08 and '12, before they flipped to Trump in '16.
-The state with the most flipped counties is Iowa, at 31, followed by Wisconsin with 23 and Minnesota with 19.
-53% of flipped counties lost population from 2016 to 2018, and 94% lost prime working-age population over the past decade, according to the report.
What they're saying: "Struggling areas played an outsized role in deciding the 2016 election," said John Lettieri, president and CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, a nonprofit "ideas laboratory" based in D.C.
"[S]wing counties ... continue to experience weaker economic conditions that are out of step with the robust national economy."
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Dumbasses...