The biggest miscalculation Republicans made throughout the Trump era is conflating the president’s base of hard-core supporters with the larger swath of Trump sympathizers, who share the president’s populist instincts but always held reservations about his temperament. They’re middle-class voters who have been turned off by the Democratic Party’s elitist turn but aren’t the knee-jerk partisans seen at President Trump’s rallies. Many don’t participate in Republican primaries, yet they made the difference for the president in the Midwest in 2016, and turned onetime Democratic union towns into Trump territory.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who will be immortalized as the Democrat who switched parties to join Team Trump, is the poster child for those mistaken political instincts. CONT.
Josh Kraushaar, National Journal
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