Would Another Republican Have Defeated Hillary Clinton?
Donald Trump charted a new course to the presidency, and both parties have a great deal to learn from it.
By Michael Barone — December 2, 2016
Would any Republican besides Donald Trump have beaten Hillary Clinton and been elected the 45th president? It’s an interesting question, not susceptible to a definitive answer but with consequences for politics going forward.
Last fall, I shared the widespread view that Clinton was the only Democrat who could lose to Trump and Trump was the only Republican who could lose to Clinton. Given the fact that elections are a zero-sum game because one candidate must win, this view was more an expression of distaste rather than a prophecy.
But it was based also on polling conducted during the spring, before Trump eliminated his remaining Republican opponents in the Indiana primary on May 3. National polls and some state polls showed Marco Rubio running stronger against Clinton than Trump, with John Kasich running even stronger and Ted Cruz a bit better.
This seemed to make sense then. Trump had much higher negatives, especially among white college graduates, who had voted 56-42 percent for Mitt Romney in 2012. Without similar support, how could he hope to win?
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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442651/how-trump-won-democrats-created-midwestern-opening-white-voters
