Pollster Frank Lutz said President-elect Trump’s victory over Vice President Harris is a monster win for the GOP’s ability to win over “paycheck-to-paycheck” voters that at the same time shoudl send “shivers” down the backs of Democrats.
Luntz said Trump, who won the popular vote for the first time in three consecutive presidential races where he was the GOP candidate, had won over working class voters.
That translated into a map that gave Trump victories in all seven swing states, from the Midwest to the Sunbelt.
“That scene, that map should send shivers down every Democrat’s back because that is a wipeout, and that tells you how weak the Democratic Party has become,” Lutz said during a Wednesday News Nation appearance.
Trump also did better in states where he was expected to win, like Alabama, and states that he lost, such as New Jersey and Illinois.
Luntz hailed the Republican Party for Trump’s ability to make gains with “paycheck to paycheck” voters regardless of race, gender or other aspects of their identity.
“This is a group that has been voting Democrats since I’ve been alive. And Trump is the first Republican able to coalesce them,” Lutz said “And one of the key moments in this is that it’s not white paycheck to paycheck. It’s not brown, Latino, Hispanic paycheck to paycheck. It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is.”
“It doesn’t matter what your gender is, if you’re a paycheck to paycheck voter struggling every week or every month, you are more likely to consider and to actually vote for Donald Trump than in any time since Ronald Reagan in 1984,” Lutz added. “You’d have to go back 40 years.”
The Republican leader made massive gains with voters in lower tax brackets which garnered support for his re-election bid in crucial swing states. Lutz predicted it would help the party secure House races after gaining the majority in the Senate.
Analysts credit Trump’s success to people’s trust in his ability to handle the economy. Despite questionable comments, Lutz said voters were drawn towards someone who was “tough” and even a bit “onery” but a leader who could get the job done.
“The voters who voted for him trust him to bring about the change that he’s promised. They trust him to make a fundamental, a meaningful, measurable difference in the way Washington works,” Lutz said. “And what I find remarkable, because Harris, at one point when she was so joyful and just dancing up and down the stage, it looked like she was going to take the country by storm.”
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
