Since Election Day, there’s been heated debate over whether the results underscored our country’s rampant tribalism, or efforts to win over persuadable voters in the middle actually worked. The short answer is both. President-elect Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton by a small but critical margin in key battleground states, improving his party’s standing in the suburbs and making modest inroads in consequential blue-collar precincts. The 306 electoral votes Biden won included narrow wins in all three “blue wall” Rust Belt battlegrounds and picking off traditionally Republican Arizona and Georgia—a testament to his ability to win over enough moderates to prevail.
At the same time, ticket splitting hit a near-historic low, as the political realignment of higher-income suburbanites moving toward the Democratic column and working-class whites drifting into the Republican column accelerated. CONTINUED
Josh Kraushaar, National Journal
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