… Most of those people who didn’t view Trump as qualified voted for Hillary Clinton or didn’t vote. But exit polling conducted on Election Day found that of the 61 percent of voters who didn’t think Trump was qualified, nearly a fifth voted for Trump anyway. This was certainly in part because of skepticism about Clinton. But it was also a function of partisanship. Republicans may not have particularly cared for Trump, but he was the Republican candidate in a presidential election and here we are. Candidates who aren’t seen as able to be president can be elected president. Who knew!
The question that emerges now is how that holds in 2020. Will ongoing skepticism of Trump — and ongoing disapproval of his presidency — prove to be prohibitive? Will running against a Democratic candidate who might be more positively viewed than Clinton shift the calculus? CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post