Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author:

How presidential battleground states have changed over the years

How presidential battleground states have changed over the years

An early look at the Fox News 2024 Presidential Power Rankings predicts Georgia and Arizona to be among the closest contests. Those states were once thought to be Republican strongholds. Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have all shifted between red and blue over the years, making it difficult to determine which nominee voters there will pick in 2024. “These were the closest last time around,” said Jessica Taylor, the Senate and governors editor for the Cook Political Report. Florida is “what 2000 came down to.” Twenty-four years and six elections ago, Florida was a presidential battleground state, along with current solid Republican states like Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia, and now-solid Democrat states like Washington, Oregon and New Mexico. “Both [Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore] used these different campaign tactics and campaign memorabilia to kind of speak to certain voters,” Museum of Democracy Chair Austin Wright said. TRUMP SPARKS EMOTIONAL REACTIONS FROM CROWD IN SURPRISE VISIT TO SNEAKER CONVENTION The Museum of Democracy in New York holds more than 1.25 million objects in its collection. Wright said in the 2000 election in Florida, Gore used a Gore-Lieberman yarmulke to cater to Florida’s large Jewish population. Bush campaigned by trying to sway more rural Florida voters with his Texas roots.  “Some of these pictures of Bush in his Texas campaign gear … we think that contributed to the more rural Panhandle,” Wright said. Bush won Florida by a narrow margin in 2000, prompting a recount. Without the state of Florida decided, Gore had 266 electoral votes and Bush had 246. The recount, certification process and legal battle lasted more than a month. The results eventually showed Bush won Florida with a tight 537-vote advantage over Gore. “I am thankful for America and thankful that we were able to resolve our electoral differences in a peaceful way,” Bush said after the results were finalized. Since 2000, Florida’s population has changed. The Cuban and Venezuelan populations are growing. In many cases, they fled their countries because of socialism and now tend to lean Republican. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN LAYOFFS, VOWS TO REMAIN IN RACE: ‘REALLY TOUGH DAY’ “I think there’s a misconception out there and just popular culture that there’s this monolithic Hispanic community,” said Gerhard Peters, co-director of the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara. “Cuban Americans in South Florida have historically been very reliable Republican voters.” There has also been an increase in retirees in Florida. Former President Trump won among voters 65 and older in the state by 11 points in 2020. “To me, does Biden even play there?” Taylor said. “It’s just very hard to imagine that being very competitive when you look at just the trends.” Florida voters last favored the Democrat nominee in 2012, when President Barack Obama ran for reelection against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.   “I still consider Florida to be a battleground state,” Peters said. “I think it’s a very fluid state in a lot of ways. We’ve seen a lot of migration to Florida from other states.” LAST RIVAL STANDING: HALEY FACES STEEP UPHILL CLIMB AGAINST TRUMP WITH 1 WEEK UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY Colorado is another state that has experienced population changes over the years. In 2000 and 2004, Bush won the state. During the Obama years, it was a swing state. Now, Colorado is in the solid-blue category. “Colorado is a great example of how the demographics changed,” Wright said. “I think Obama’s ‘hope and change’ sentiment really contributed to that. I think that artwork really made an imprint on giving young people this hope that the country could be a better, different place.” Denver grew by 20% between 2010 and 2020, with mostly minorities moving to the city. A lot of voters in the suburbs are wealthier and college-educated. Suburban voters have tended to lean Democrat since Trump became the standard-bearer of the GOP.  “A lot of suburban voters would have voted Republican in the past because they were thinking about their pocketbook issues,” Peters said. “A lot of those voters, especially educated women voters, have moved away from the Republican Party.” Suburban voters are also impacting presidential preference in other states. HISTORIAN WHO CORRECTLY PREDICTED ALMOST EVERY ELECTION WINNER SINCE 1984 REVEALS WHO IS LIKELY TO WIN IN 2024 “Colorado to me is what possibly maybe Arizona could be in a couple of years if we see sort of the same trends,” Taylor said. “I think Arizona right now is firmly in the toss-up column because you do still have a significant number of Republicans there.” Arizona holds the nation’s largest county and largest suburb. The Hispanic vote has also been growing, with the majority leaning Democrat. “These campaigns have directed not only a number of ads that speak solely in Spanish, but we’ve seen a number of buttons and a number of posters that really touch on these different groups,” Wright said. Another western state is also in the battleground state column. “We’re doing a heck of a lot in the state of Nevada,” President Biden said during a recent campaign stop in the swing state. TRUCKERS FOR TRUMP TO BOYCOTT DRIVING TO NEW YORK CITY AFTER $355M FRAUD RULING Nevada trended red in the 1980s. Since 2008, the majority of voters there have picked the Democrat nominee. Similar to Arizona, the state has seen an increase in Hispanic voters. Minorities are also helping Democrats in Georgia. Republican presidential candidates won the state from 1996 until 2020. Atlanta’s thriving job market has brought in younger, more diverse voters and is now home to nearly half of the state’s population. “The digital side of it has really changed the way people campaign. And so I think that in places like Georgia … targeting young people in particular has kind of changed that whole dynamic,” Wright said. “We weren’t even thinking about Arizona and Georgia a couple of presidential cycles ago. But when you look at the migration into the states – more

Biden campaign brings in $42 million in January, touts ‘historic’ cash-on-hand

Biden campaign brings in million in January, touts ‘historic’ cash-on-hand

The Biden campaign raised more than $42 million in January and has $130 million in cash-on-hand–a figure President Biden’s re-election team is touting as “the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history” at this point in the election cycle, Fox News Digital has learned. The campaign has raised nearly $278 million since the president announced his run for a second term in April 2023. BIDEN CAMPAIGN REPORTS $97M IN Q4 OF 2023, TOUTS ‘HISTORIC’ $117M CASH-ON-HAND ON DAY OF IOWA CAUCUSES “January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager, said in a statement.  “While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda.” She added: “Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price.” Chavez Rodriguez said that the 2024 election “will determine the fate of our democracy and our freedoms,” and stressed that the Biden campaign “is using its resources to build a winning operation that will meet voters where they are about the stakes of this election.” Meanwhile, campaign senior communications advisor TJ Ducklo said the team is “particularly proud that January shattered our grassroots fundraising record for a third straight month.” BIDEN EXPECTED TO RAISE MORE THAN $15 MILLION IN STAR-STUDDED FUNDRAISING BLITZ: SOURCES “This haul will go directly to reaching the voters who will decide this election,” Ducklo said. “That’s reason number 355 million that we are confident President Biden and Vice President Harris will win this November.” The Biden campaign, in January, had its strongest grassroots fundraising month, breaking its previous record from December. The campaign said last month that 1.1 million supporters have made nearly 3 million contributions. The campaign also touted “high-profile moments” that motivated grassroots donors, saying that they raised $1 million each day in the three days following the GOP Iowa Caucuses. HALEY TOUTS JANUARY FUNDRAISING HAUL AHEAD OF FIRST RALLY IN SUPER TUESDAY STATE “January’s unprecedented fundraising numbers underscore the grassroots momentum to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “From coast to coast, Americans are rallying together to safeguard our democracy and defend our freedoms in a historic way.” He added: “As this election year kicks into full gear, Team Biden-Harris and the DNC stand united, leveraging the power of grassroots donors to propel Democrats to victory at every level.”