This election marked, among other things, the birth of a new Republican-led multiracial working-class coalition and the beginning of an upheaval in the Democratic Party. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss the voters who propelled Donald Trump’s win, Democrats’ reactions, and expectations for Trump’s second term.
Much of Trump’s win can be understood by looking at the seven key battleground states in this election. In many of these areas, Trump was able to turn out significantly more votes than he had in either the 2016 or 2020 election, especially among low-propensity voters, Tim Alberta explained last night.
“We’re not just talking about persuading erstwhile Democrats to flip and go Republican, we’re talking about turning out voters who had never been registered to vote before,” Alberta said. “Whether or not they will remain a durable piece of the Republican coalition remains to be seen, but in this election that proved to be the difference.”
Meanwhile, panelists discussed how, for some of these voters, especially a base of young men, their consumption of news related to Trump came primarily from online media spaces such as podcasts, as Helen Lewis explained last night. “For those younger people who are used to listening to TikTok, Instagram … they’re used to people talking to them face-to-face and being very open about their political views and trying to sell them things,” she said. As opposed to the mainstream media’s coverage of the election, these young voters were drawn to “people who just go, ‘Yeah, I’m for Trump.’”
Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Tim Alberta, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker; Asma Khalid, a White House correspondent for NPR and a political contributor for ABC News; and Helen Lewis, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Watch the full episode here.