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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Manchin, Sinema and Democratic Party Strength in WV and AZ

Despite Democratic consternation about Sens. Manchin and Sinema refusing to modify the filibuster so their party can actually enact popular reforms, the situation may not be as hopeless as appears.

With respect to Sen. Manchin, here are some very up-to-date voter registration figures (“as of May 21, 2021”) from the Secretary of State’s office regarding political party strength in West Virginia: Democrats 35.54%; Republicans 37.83%; No Party 22.42%; Other 3.24%; Libertarian 0.77; Mountain 0.19%.

In light of these numbers, isn’t it a bit of a stretch to stereotype WV as a hopelessly “red” state?

Regarding Arizona, the AZ S.O.S. reports that the state’s registered voter stats for April 2021 are: Democrats 32.01%; Republicans 34.87%; Other 32.23%; Libertarian 0.88.

Yes, lots of self-identified Democrats in these states are relatively conservative. But why do they still call themselves Democrats, and do they really want to surrender America’s future to the party that supported the Jan. 6th coup attempt and sports “leaders” with the character flaws of Trump, McConnell, Cruz, Graham and Hawley?

Before curling up in the fetal position in unconditional surrender, Democrats might want to consider Stacy Abrams/GA-style education and mobilization campaigns in AZ and WV to persuade Sens. Manchin and Sinema that some reasonable modifications of the filibuster might be a politically-wise career move.

One comment on “Manchin, Sinema and Democratic Party Strength in WV and AZ

  1. pjcamp on

    “In light of these numbers, isn’t it a bit of a stretch to stereotype WV as a hopelessly “red” state?”

    Well, no. It depends on whether or not those 22% no-party people are 21.5% basically Republican. The fact that WV went Trump by 69% says that they are. They’re independent not because they’re independent but because independent sounds better.

    And as a resident of Georgia, I’ll inform you that what Stacy Abrams did in Georgia was mobilize non-white voters and get some credit for something she had little to do with — swing the Atlanta suburbs. The number of minorities in West Virginia is vanishingly small as is the number of suburbs. Arizona is different, and I’ll let them answer for themselves, but one thing we learned from this election is that a large number of Latino men are religious and very conservative, totally unlike the African American population of Georgia.

    This isn’t even lying with statistics. It is willfully refusing to understand statistics.

    Reply

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