“State College Voters” Could Decide the Election
“State College Voters” Could Decide the Election
Washington Monthly Editor in Chief Paul Glastris has a must-read article published in Politico today: The Overlooked Demographic That Is a Huge Opportunity for Democrats.
That demographic is state college voters, one of whom is the Democratic nominee for vice president, Tim Walz.
As Glastris explains:
These are Americans who, while college educated, didn’t leave home to attend fancy colleges like Harvard or Yale. Instead, they mostly studied at what are called “regional public universities”: not the flagship state universities but unassuming institutions whose names have the word “State” in them (California State University-Fullerton) or refer to their location (Northern Illinois University).
Instead of pursing lucrative jobs in distant coastal metropolises, they generally built their careers near where they grew up, earning more modest incomes but contributing their tax dollars and civic energies to their home regions.
They comprise a far bigger share of the electorate than those who went to elite colleges. But as a group they have been almost completely ignored politically, until Walz came on the national scene. Understanding who these voters are, what makes them tick and how to reach out to them could make a difference in this razor-close election.
You can click here to read the full article at Politico. I have more key excerpts below. But first, here’s what’s leading the Washington Monthly website:
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The Supreme Court Should Listen to Congress in Ghost Guns Case: Nina Henry, counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, explains why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives followed the law and Constitution when it imposed regulations on the sale of easy-to-assemble gun kits. Click here for the full story.
As a New Supreme Court Term Begins, Even Some Conservatives Are Running from Samuel Alito: James D. Zirin, a former federal prosecutor, takes a close look at a recent Supreme Court case involving the First Amendment in which Alito found himself isolated from his fellow conservative justices. Click here for the full story.
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At Politico, Glastris explains that “upward of 45 percent” of four-year degree holders “attended regional public universities.” Yet they are often ignored by policymakers:
Because of their lower profile and perceived status, regional public universities are disadvantaged in battles for funding. They receive, on average, $1,091 (or about 10 percent) less state funding per student than do public flagships, according to the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. They also garner fewer federal research dollars and have smaller endowments. This is true despite the fact that regional publics provide a better return for state taxpayers than flagships, according to a study by the Upjohn Institute. That’s because students at brand-name flagships often come from out of state and leave after graduating, whereas those from regional public universities generally stay put, and the higher incomes they earn thanks to their degrees boosts the economies of their states and regions.
And Glastris argues that if Democrats embraced policies to steer more funding to regional state colleges, that could pay off with suburban swing voters:
College-educated voters in general are already trending the Democrats’ way, but as political analyst Michael Podhorzer has shown, the shift is still far from complete, with a sizable number still supporting Republicans. State school voters in particular make up a substantial subset of the coveted suburban vote that has been the key to recent Democratic victories.
To win more of them, however, Democratic candidates need to put some distance between themselves and the Ivy League set, as Walz has tried to do. They should also more explicitly target the state college vote with policy proposals, like greater federal support for regional public universities. That strategy might have the double benefit of appealing to persuadable Republican voters.
In a forthcoming online survey, Brendan Cantwell and colleagues at Michigan State University found that Republicans are just as likely as Democrats to believe that their local universities are of high quality, even though they are far more skeptical of the role higher education plays in the nation generally.
To read the full story from Politico, click here.
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The post “State College Voters” Could Decide the Election appeared first on Washington Monthly.