Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
There are a lot of ways to try to figure out which state is the most friendly to one political party. The most common method is to look at the margins in the previous presidential race. Or to look at how long it's been since one party has won a state at the presidential level.
The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia has come up with another way to rank the states in terms of their partisan leans -- and it comes down to this longtime political maxim: Demography is destiny.
The Center for Politics used three criteria to rank the states demographically:
1) What percentage of the state's residents 25 or older have bachelor's degrees or higher?
2) What percentage of the state's residents are White?
3) How urban or rural is the state?
"Put simply, Republican candidates now perform strongest among White voters without a college degree, especially if they live in rural areas. And Democrats, conversely, are performing best among minority voters, those with at least an undergraduate degree, and those who live in or near urban areas."
The center added each state's ratings on those three categories together. The lower the number, the more friendly for Republicans. The higher the number, the more favorable for Democrats.
There are a lot of ways to try to figure out which state is the most friendly to one political party. The most common method is to look at the margins in the previous presidential race. Or to look at how long it's been since one party has won a state at the presidential level.
The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia has come up with another way to rank the states in terms of their partisan leans -- and it comes down to this longtime political maxim: Demography is destiny.
The Center for Politics used three criteria to rank the states demographically:
2) What percentage of the state's residents are White?
3) How urban or rural is the state?
"Put simply, Republican candidates now perform strongest among White voters without a college degree, especially if they live in rural areas. And Democrats, conversely, are performing best among minority voters, those with at least an undergraduate degree, and those who live in or near urban areas."
The center added each state's ratings on those three categories together. The lower the number, the more friendly for Republicans. The higher the number, the more favorable for Democrats.
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