This is something I noticed in the election results. Trump did far worse in the suburbs in Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and marginally worse in North Carolina, Florida, and even South Carolina. But he did better with suburban voters in Ohio, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and performed on performed on par in Pennsylvania. Can anyone explain why this shift occured?
Wait--- what?
I don't think Trump performed better among Northern suburban voters than among Southern suburban voters overall....
I believe there was a greater swing towards Trump among Upper-Income Southern suburban voters than among Northern suburban voters.
Maybe we should clarify what we mean by "suburban voters" so we can all discuss with a common understanding, as well as better/worse. Are we talking swings or overall Rep vote % / Margins?
Is the definition of suburban based upon Exit Polling or Census based MSA type statistics?
I mean compared to Romney. I couldn't fit it inside the title, so I had to stick with what I said. I'll add it to the OP.
Aaah... ok super6646, I think I get it now, and makes a bit more sense, if one compares it against Romney '12 numbers.
So in Atlas speak we have "swings" (Change in total % margin between the two major party candidates) and "trends" (How the state/county/city... etc) compares to the National/Statewide % margin.
Not trying to be condescending, just want to make sure everyone is discussing based upon the same data points.
So, if we look at
Macomb County Michigan (Famous example of "Reagan Democrats")
2008: (53.3 D- 44.7 R) + 8.6 D
2012: (51.3 D- 47.3 R) + 4.0 D (+ 4.6% R Swing)
2016: (42.1 D- 53.6 R) +11.5 R (+15.5% R Swing!)
Oakland County, Michigan2008: (56.4 D- 41.9 R) +14.5 D
2012: (53.4 D- 45.4 R) + 8.0 D (+ 6.5% R Swing)
2016: (51.3 D- 43.2 R) + 8.1 D (+ 0.1% D Swing)
Both are widely considered "suburban counties" of Detroit...
So for the examples of "Southern" suburban states that you use, the suburban counties of the major Cities of Texas, as well as Metro-Atlanta, and Northern Virginia (NoVA) definitely swung towards the Democrats in '16.
Still, the juxtaposition of North/South is a bit off, since the Suburban counties close to Philly swung towards HRC, as did Westchester County NY, and Bergen County NJ.
Maybe the real question is: "Why did suburban counties in Ohio (Delaware Co aside) and Michigan not swing towards HRC, compared to suburban counties elsewhere in the Country?"