In Trumps Win, G.O.P. Sees Signs of a Game-Changing New Coalition
Republicans have sounded alarms for more than a decade about the limits of their overwhelmingly white party.To stay competitive for the White House, strategists warned, they would need to bring more Black, Latino and other voters of color into the fold.On Tuesday, Donald J.
Trump showed how it could be done.His victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was decisive, broad and dependent on voters from core Democratic constituencies.Results showed that Mr.
Trump continued his dominance with the white, working-class voters who first propelled his political rise.But he also made modest gains in the suburbs and cities, and with Black voters, and even more significant inroads with Latinos.Mr.
Trump’s performance did not suddenly transform the Republican Party into the multiracial alliance of working-class voters that some strategists say is necessary for survival in the rapidly changing country.But he nudged it in that direction.At a time when the nation is sharply divided — particularly between rich and poor, and between those with and without a college degree — even incremental shifts were enough to sweep Mr.
Trump back into power and put him on track to win the popular vote.Conservative strategists who have pushed the party to broaden its appeal pointed to the changes as proof of concept.
Democrats, who have long relied on the support of minority voters, agonized over the trends.“The losses among Latinos is nothing short of catastrophic for the party,” said Representative Ritchie Torres, an Afro-Latino Democrat whose Bronx-based district is heavily Hispanic.Mr.
Torres worried that Democrats were increasingly captive to “a college-educated far left that is in danger of causing us to fall out of touch with working-class voters.”There was evidence of Mr.Trump’s inroads across the country.
In the heavily blue-collar community of Fayette County, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, Mr.Trump won nearly 70 percent of the vote, expanding his margins by about five p...