As politicians, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders could hardly be more different. … Despite their differences, however, Cruz and Sanders have one thing in common — their electoral strategies rely heavily on dramatically expanding the American electorate. …
And Sanders and Cruz aren’t the only presidential candidates banking on increased voter turnout to win in November. Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination, has argued that his ability to turn out millions of new working-class voters worried about free trade, terrorism, and illegal immigration would allow him to defeat either Hillary Clinton or Sanders.
How realistic are the claims made by these presidential candidates that higher voter turnout could increase their chances of winning the 2016 presidential election? To answer this question, I analyzed data from the 2012 American National Election Study (ANES) on the characteristics and political attitudes of voters and nonvoters in the 2012 presidential election. CONT.
Alan I. Abramowitz (Emory), Sabato’s Crystal Ball