America's diploma divide: States with fewer grads went for Trump
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One factor with a startlingly strong record of predicting whether a state voted Trump or Harris: the percentage of their population that graduated college.
Why it matters: America has split, and flipped, by education levels. Democrats have largely lost the working-class voters who elected Barack Obama, and college-educated professionals are shifting away from the Republican Party.
- Now those with degrees overwhelmingly back Dems, and those without make up most of the red base.
By the numbers: College graduates made up 43% of the electorate, and 55% voted for Vice President Harris, per exit polls.
- 56% of voters without degrees voted for President-elect Trump.
Zoom out: Around 37% of Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to Census data.
- The states below that level are almost all reliably red, and the states above it are almost all reliably blue.
- And several of the states that hover right around the middle are closely watched battlegrounds.
- Hover over the dots in the chart for more information about each state.
What to watch: As Democrats dive into what went wrong for them this cycle, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the leading progressive voice in Congress, delivered a searing review of the Party.
- “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” he said in a statement.
