Leadership Thoughts

leading in today's world

White Voter Support for Trump

Two frameworks are useful in trying to explain the surprising 2016 election, and even the surprising nomination, of Donald Trump. One framework focuses on the macro level, covering the larger circumstances and conditions that permitted if not facilitated Trump’s election. The other framework focuses on the micro level, on the specific variables that resulted in Trump’s election. One can justly see Trump’s election as a perfect storm, a combination of many things that permitted his razor edge victory, about 70,000 votes total in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

American voters have gone to the polls five times in this young century to elect a president.… Read the rest

Obama to Trump Voters

People who voted for Obama in 2012 and for Trump in 2016, about 5.7 million voters, played an essential role in Trump’s victory. A research paper by Stephen Morgan and Jiwon Lee explore the characteristics of these voters. While their research focuses primarily on white non-Hispanic “crossover” voters they also discuss the characteristics of white non-Hispanic voters who did not vote in 2012 but voted for Trump in 2016. The authors also generate some comparisons between these two sets of voters and Romney-Trump voters.

Cross-pressured voters are those voters who are subject to conflicts and inconsistencies in whom to vote for.… Read the rest