Swing voters often determine who wins national elections — but they don’t swing for the reasons that much of the media and many politicians imply. …
What’s actually going on with swing voters? Based on previous election cycles and scholarly research, here are four ways to think about them:
Swing voters are not consistent centrists. Swing voters generally don’t have across-the-board liberal or conservative stances, and are likely to identify as moderates. They have some aversion to both the two major political parties and partisanship itself. But they are not all alike: Some have a mix of liberal stances and conservative ones; others are in the center on most major issues; a third bloc doesn’t have set views in part because they just don’t follow politics closely. CONTINUED
Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post
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