For Democrats, it is unquestionably the case that having a white man on the ballot next November will spur turnout and energy among even infrequent voters. That white man is President Trump, whose unpopularity with members of the opposing party led to midterm turnout that we hadn’t seen in a century.
It’s an open question, though, how having a white man representing their own party might boost or dampen Democratic enthusiasm. New data from Pew Research Center, though, suggest that nominating another white man might be problematic for the party. …
Why does this matter? In part because of an under-recognized trend in the 2016 election. That year, an estimated 4.4 million voters who’d supported Barack Obama in 2012 didn’t cast a ballot. More than half of those Obama voters who didn’t vote in 2016 — the top bar on the graph below — were nonwhite. CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post
