… The political dividing line in America used to be between cities, which were mostly Democratic, and suburbs, which had long been Republican. But today it runs through the very center of the suburbs themselves, between a densely populated inner ring that is turning blue and a more spacious outer ring that is becoming ever more red.
This is as true in Alabama as it is in New York: Rural places and newer suburbs swung for Mr. Trump, while urban places and older suburbs favored Hillary Clinton. …
All of this has put the suburbs at the center of the nation’s political map in 2020. It is also scrambling old patterns. Mrs. Clinton did better than Barack Obama in Texas, Georgia and Arizona, states that have fast-growing suburbs thick with educated voters. In Michigan last year, two Democrats, Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin, won suburban districts that Republicans had dominated.
“It was a remarkable change,” said Amy Walter, national editor of The Cook Political Report. “You saw this happen almost across the board from Orange County to Houston, Atlanta, Seattle all in the same year. Suddenly there was no regional difference. It was the nationalization of suburbia.” CONT.
Sabrina Tavernise & Robert Gebeloff, New York Times