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Have spent the last couple of days looking what most distinguishes the 139 districts represented by Republicans that objected to the certification of election results last Wednesday. Some of my main findings: https://whitonjacob.medium.com/where-sedition-is-rewarded-2a50ccc70fd
1) Trump's most committed base largely resides in fast-growing exurban areas that are rapidly diversifying. Since 2000, white Americans' share of the population in these districts has fallen 9 percentage points
2) Latino and Asian American homeowners in these districts have seen relatively fast income growth and gains in home ownership. Black residents of these districts, though, experienced a collapse in home ownership after the Great Recession from which they have not recovered
3) White residents in objectors' districts are still more likely to own their home and have higher household incomes than any group besides Asian Americans, but their relative status compared to non-white groups has been diminishing over the last 20 years
4) Republican objectors are significantly more likely to represent evangelical protestants and local economies dependent on mining, heavy industry, and law enforcement. This has allowed Trump and his allies to stoke these voters' sense of threat from left wing political movements
5a) In 2018, average voter turnout was lowest among objectors' districts at less than 50%. Pro-Trump Republicans' embrace of antidemocratic politics is motivated by a keen sense that their hold on power is fragile and dependent on minoritarian features of our political system
5b) For instance, objector Steven Palazzo of MS-4 was elected in 2018 with 68% of the vote. Turnout in his district was 39%, meaning a mere 26% of the constituents he represents actually cast their vote for him. He is now under investigation for illegal use of campaign funds.
I conclude by noting that Trump's incitement of a riot to prevent the certification of his loss should be seen as the culmination of the GOP's decade-long project to entrench their power through arbitrary restrictions on the franchise and the dilution of their opponents' power
Effective as they've been, Democrats’ Senate victories in GA have shown that a latent majority of voters can be organized and mobilized to reject white Christian nationalism and its antidemocratic politics, even in a state where voter suppression efforts have been infamous
