"It's Hard To Believe" - Establishment Stunned As Trump Gains 'Wealthy, Well-Educated' Voters

Zero Hedge ^ | 4/28/2017 | Tyler Durden

[VA Voter]

Not only is Donald Trump likely to gather the most votes of any GOP Presidential nominee ever, having swept the East Coast and crushed the anti-Trump alliance between Kasich and Cruz even before it made the news cycle; but now, as Reuters reports, the GOP establishment faces an ever bigger problem. Wealthy, well-educated voters helped carry the Republican front-runner to victory this week - a demographic the famously blunt-spoken billionaire had struggled to attract in the past.

As we noted previously, with a number of states remaining including California, Trump is set to surpass current record holder George W. Bush, who received 10.8 million votes in 2000.

And, as Reuters reports, it's not just "angry blue collar white men"...

Trump's sweep of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday included wins in some of the richest and best-educated counties in the country - like Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Newport County, Rhode Island - and added to victories in his more traditional strongholds of white working-class neighborhoods.

Exit polls from Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland showed Trump winning about half of Republican voters with college degrees, and over half of Republican voters making more than $100,000 a year.

“On its face, it is hard to believe he’d be improving with a demographic group that has been so averse to his style, his denigrating language,” said Randall Miller, a professor of American politics at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania.

“But I think people may have gotten used to Trump, he’s not as outrageous as he used to be,” he said, adding that familiarity with the businessman's brand in the Northeast may also have helped him.

But with Trump far ahead of his rivals, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich, in the race for the presidential nomination, Miller said Republican voters of all stripes may become more resigned to voting for Trump.

"I think it is possible he replicates this."

Trump has historically done well in areas where the collapse of important local industries has put stress on working families - propelling his popularity among poorer white voters drawn to his rhetoric about inept government and failed international trade deals.

A Franklin and Marshall College voter survey released last week showed Trump's message of disaffection had sunk in across the state. Just under 40 percent of voters cited "government, politicians" as the most important problem facing Pennsylvania, with "unemployment, personal finances” ranked a distant second at 14 percent.

In the affluent Maryland suburbs of Montgomery and Howard counties, where more than 60 percent of whites hold college degrees, Trump claimed a smaller 40 percent share of the Republican vote. It was still enough for a first-place finish over Cruz and Kasich.

Fred Stubbs, 72, a retired accountant from Potomac, Maryland, said he voted for Trump on Tuesday because he believed the real estate mogul would improve the country's standing in the world.

As Trump said aftewr "the sweep" - "as far as I'm concerned, it's over"

[thinden]

"And Trump is probably just as much a Conservative as GWB."

one has to be more conservative when they're playing with their own hard earned money.

dubya is just another political hog in the long line at the gummit trough.

what's conservative about that?

[Bubba Gump Shrimp]

I am pretty sure he had this group locked up from early on.

One of his first speeches he noted (paraphrasing):

“we are winning with the men, the women, the whites, the hispanics, the blacks, the wealthy, the poor, the highly educated and poorly educated”

... and the media went nutso claiming he was insulting the poorly educated (which he was not).

[Salamander]

Same here.

FWIW, 90% of our callers are veterans and they are pumped at the possibility of finally being able to afford triking their motorcycles.

Right before Obeyme took over, all of our calls said the same thing.

“We want to trike our bike but if *he* gets in, we won’t be able to afford it.”

And they couldn’t, so they didn’t.

We went from “too much work” to barely any.

This has been the worst 8 years of my *life*.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

You are BOTH right AND wrong..
Yes the “media” is S00000 stupid.
No...we DO NOT have to listen to it.
Real “news” is avaailable from many sources, including the one you are reading now. To listen solely to the “media” is to have a terminally insulted intelligence. With the internet and a remote with fresh batteries, we can, for ourselves, sort of create our own media.
Years ago, skipping sports, comics, want ads, normal ads, “women’s pages, and out of town obits, I could absorb 4 newpapers per day. I am saidly down to NONE, so I turn to the new media, that which I select.

[Mechanicos]

Except Trump is not owned by Dubai like the Bushes and most of our government is.

[eyedigress]

It’s gonna be Trump or Hillary. Vote or stay home.

[Mechanicos]

Even simpler explanation. Nationalism is very popular.

[austinaero]

“There have not been debates every week where Trump showed himself to be dismissive, insulting etc...and people’s attitudes change when that isn’t in their face.”

Really, that’s it?

College-educated people don’t read? They can’t do research? They rely 100% on the debates and that’s all?

Lame.

[COBOL2Java]

“On its face, it is hard to believe he’d be improving with a demographic group that has been so averse to his style, his denigrating language,” said Randall Miller, a professor of American politics at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania.

---

Hey Randall! Maybe he's improving because of things like this:

All Flash, No Bang

March, 2014: Seeking re-election in a hotly contested campaign against challenger Alison Grimes, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., came onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference today brandishing a long gun.

"If I'm given the opportunity to lead the U.S. Senate next year, I won’t let you down"

[fortheDeclaration]

Trump is not a NWO guy like Bush was.

[eyedigress]

Trump is not a NWO guy like Bush was.

That's why Linda Graham is so upset.

[Beautiful_Gracious_Skies]

GO WIN TRUMP!
Indict —HIllary!
Repatriate Ted!
Kibbutz Bernie!
Outsource Carly!

[gogeo]

He’s a sledgehammer.

Perfect.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Also I think the vast majority have concluded that nice guys finish last, and it is going to take a first-class a*hole to clean-up the mess Obama is leaving.

[Texan5]

I hear you loud and clear-this is small and/or individually owned, operate from home business territory-when the winter snowbirds and summer tourists couldn’t afford to gas up and tow the RV down here to stay at a park or cabin for a few weeks or for the winter anymore starting 7 years ago, that trashed the economy for pretty much everyone who works for themselves.

If customers can’t make money from their RV park or repair service, snowbird cabins, tourist traps, etc then they can’t pay for that little patio, gazebo, new floor or wall tile, greenhouse/Florida room, or even new texture and faux finish paint for the dining room at their house-and means no work for me or any of the other subs I work with-all 5 are vets.

We’ve been bartering with each other for repair work on the places we live because none of us can afford to call someone we have to pay-it really sucks-I don’t know anyone who ISN’T angry, no matter their sex or ethnicity...

It has been the worst in my life, too-and I lost MrT5 in the middle of it...

[MrB]

Yep, we need a sledgehammer at this time.

[stocksthatgoup]

He’s been winning those voters in earlier primaries

[Company Man]

Trump was never with out them from the get-go

[Personal Responsibility]

Most people don’t follow politics the way we do (this is a politics board, after all). In fact, most people don’t follow politics at all. And that includes the college educated. You think most (say, 60%) of people read politics? Do their own research? I disagree.

For many of those, it’s all about TV. The lack of seeing Trump’s embarrassing debate performances changes perception.

[Personal Responsibility]

Was nationalism not popular earlier this year when Trump wasn’t polling as well with “Wealthy, well-educated” voters?