Trump continues to gain support in Midwest despite some lagging growth

Wall Street Journal:
When Donald Trump broke the hold of Democrats in Pennsylvania and parts of the industrial Midwest in 2016, credit went to many blue-collar, manufacturing-oriented counties that backed him by lopsided margins, drawn in part by his promise of economic renewal.

More than two years into Mr. Trump’s presidency, employment growth and other measures of economic robustness in these politically important counties have lagged behind the national trend, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

And yet, Mr. Trump’s job-approval rating in the blue-collar counties has risen since he took office, polling shows. Together, the data suggest that even growth below the national rate could be enough to satisfy many voters that Mr. Trump has fulfilled his promises.

“There hasn’t been a big uptick” in the economy, said Anthony Seiwell, a Pennsylvania official with the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “It’s not much different than it was five years ago.” The political impact: “Trump supporters are still Trump supporters.”

The Journal used data from the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy research organization, to look at the economy in 77 blue-collar and manufacturing-reliant counties across the Midwest and Northeast. These counties, as a group, tilted only slightly toward the GOP in 2012 but then swung heavily behind Mr. Trump in 2016, backing him by a margin of 13 percentage points.

Mr. Trump’s big vote totals in some of these counties were crucial to his victories in previously Democratic Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Macomb County, outside Detroit, gave Mr. Trump a winning margin of 48,000 votes, four times the number he needed to carry Michigan. Mr. Trump won Westmoreland County, outside Pittsburgh, by 57,000 votes, more than his winning margin in Pennsylvania statewide.
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Mr. Trump’s job-approval rating in the blue-collar counties rose during his first two years in office. Some 49% of people approved of his job performance in 2019, Wall Street Journal/NBC News surveys found. That was steady from 2018 and up from 44% in 2017.
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In Luzerne County, Pa., a former coal-mining center, even some Democrats said it was unlikely that Trump voters would defect. “If people who voted for him have had a change of heart, they’re not disclosing it,” said Jane Walsh Waitkus, a Democrat and member of the Luzerne County Council.
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I think Democrats really hurt their credibility with their Russian collusion hoax and theri bogus claims of racism.  The Democrat candidates for President have further alienated votes with ehir radical agenda including gun confiscation.   They look really weird to many voters.

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