Democrats Can Win by Running Against Trump’s Racism
It’s the right thing to do — both morally and electorally.
By Steve Phillips
Mr. Phillips is the author of “Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority.”
July 30, 2019
… And the math gets more promising in 2020 when the electorate will be more racially diverse than at any previous time in United States history. …
Which raises the obvious and clearest point — there are not only white people in those states. The number of voters who stayed home in 2016 in Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia was far larger than the margin of Democratic defeat in those states. As people of color become a bigger portion of the voting population, the number of white votes required to win steadily shrinks. In fact, a group of think tanks released a report last year showing that if all of the country’s racial groups replicate in 2020 their voter turnout and partisan preferences of 2016 — essentially a “do-over” — the Democrats would win Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, just because of the demographic changes over the past four years.
By doubling down on racial diversity and standing strong against racism, Democrats would align with population changes and be able to expand the electoral map by credibly contesting the key Southern and Southwestern states of North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, among others. (Mrs. Clinton lost Arizona by 91,000 votes; 500,000 eligible Latinos in that state didn’t vote.)
America is getting browner by the hour, given that every single day, as of 2016 data, the United States population increases by 8,000 people and 90 percent of that growth comes from people of color. Moreover, an additional seven million teenagers of color will have turned 18 since the 2016 election. With this demographic revolution transforming the country, Democrats do not actually have to increase their level of white support — they just need to hold it steady, as the core of whites who vote Democratic have done for 40 years