The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Suburban voters got behind Trump’s message in 2016. Now they are walking away.

Analysis by
Staff writer
July 7, 2020 at 5:18 p.m. EDT
The Fix’s Eugene Scott analyzes President Trump’s falling support among suburban voters as some congressional Republicans start to distance themselves from him. (Video: The Washington Post)

President Trump’s stances on some of the biggest issues of our time could make it more difficult for him to win a voting bloc that helped deliver him the White House in 2016: suburban voters.

In 2016, Trump won the overall suburban vote by five percentage points, and those votes were largely responsible for his narrow victory in states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The campaign sent surrogates including Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, who became a top aide in his White House, and Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, to connect with suburban voters such as white women and working moms who were uncomfortable with Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival.