In the latest 2020 election autopsy, David Shor, a veteran of the 2012 Obama campaign who now serves as the head of data science at the progressive nonprofit OpenLabs, broke down for New York why he thinks former President Donald Trump again exceeded polling expectations in the presidential race.
Shor's analysis shows Democrats lost a significant amount of nonwhite voters, which itself is not a revelation. But he provided more context, explaining that "roughly the same proportion" of Black, Hispanic, and white voters identify as conservative. Traditionally, though, among those three groups, only white voters were polarized at the ballot box. Around 80 percent of white conservatives vote for Republicans, Shor said, but Democrats have generally won the support of nonwhite conservatives overwhelmingly regardless of their personal political ideology, suggesting that, say, economic issues were a more significant factor.
This year, though, Shor hinted that Democrats may have taken things too far with certain "ideologically charged" issues like the "defund the police" campaign. OpenLabs and its partner organizations, Shor said, have done "extensive" post-election surveys and found that Hillary Clinton voters with "conservative views on crime, policing, and public safety were more likely to switch to Trump than voters with less conservative views on those issues."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Shor went on to express his belief that as college-educated "white liberals," whom he says are more ideologically inclined, make up a larger share of the Democratic electorate, they'll continue to push the party further to the left, which could alienate nonwhite conservative Democrats. Read the full interview at New York. Tim O'Donnell
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
