Trump Didn't Just Lose Swing Voters--the GOP Did as Well

[DonViejo]

Post-election focus groups show some swing voters are done calling themselves Republicans

by RICH THAU FEBRUARY 16, 2021 5:25 AM

When moderating focus groups, one of the most entertaining activities is posing hypotheticals. Smart politicians hate hypotheticals, and usually manage to avoid answering them. But focus group respondents—who are paid to answer questions and don’t mind the tougher ones—provide some of their most meaningful insights when asked questions that extend beyond the plausible.

I conducted 21 monthly focus groups of “Obama-Trump” swing voters from March 2019 through November 2020, and my favorite question was this: “If Obama and Trump were running against each other in the 2020 election, which one would you vote for?”

Overwhelmingly and consistently, these “weathervane” voters chose Trump and forgave his shortcomings. Our focus group conversations suggested the election wouldn’t be a blowout for Biden in upper Midwest swing states where he led—sometimes widely—in various polls. Indeed the outcome was especially close in three of the states we tracked: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Starting last month, we revived and re-oriented the Swing Voter Project to focus on “Trump-to-Biden” voters in the 10 closest 2020 swing states. And, once again, it was time to create some new hypotheticals. Given rampant speculation about whether the GOP’s travails would affect the 2022 midterms, it made sense to gauge the thinking of swing voters.

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https://thebulwark.com/trump-didnt-just-lose-swing-voters-the-gop-did-as-well/

[Squinch]

1. Dumbass who would continue to be a republiQan, partly because of "the way they run the

economy."

SMDH.

[central scrutinizer]

2. We have to go big, right away

Vaccinate teachers and as many others as quickly as possible. Get relief money in people’s pockets. Reopen schools. Restart sports, restaurants, houses of worship. Start New Deal level infrastructure projects employing those whose jobs have disappeared. Restore the USPS. If life doesn’t improve, the party in power will suffer and November, 2022 will be a disaster. Of course, the GQP will do anything and everything to derail Biden’s agenda. Will the media return to bothsiderism?

[Blue Owl]

3. Kick the GOP while they're down. Hard! Harder!!

HARDER!!!

[Midnight Writer]

4. Trump and the GOP didn't lose voters. Trump got 12 million more votes than in 2016.

I guess you can argue what bucket those voters came from, but 2020 was far from the disaster for the GOP it deserved to be.

[uponit7771]

5. K&R, yep ... where did Trump get an increase in voters in red areas? Nearly 90% turnout in red areas

... & lower percentage of cross votes still somehow doesn't equate to 75 million votes.