Last week, there were many places where down-ballot Democrats outperformed the top of the ticket — this applied to my congressional district, but also districts of all ideologies and geographies across the country — and a not insignificant number of Democrats were in a Trump / Democratic House or Senate precinct.
So on Instagram, I wanted to hear more from folks who voted this way:
Here’s just a handful of the responses:
Another area that was interesting was hearing from families of undocumented people — who do vote — saying that there’s been no relief from Democrats, or anybody else, on the path to citizenship for 30 years.
There’s a lot of misinformation about what benefits the influx of asylum seekers do or don’t receive that has generated a certain resentment. I find it interesting how — once again — the tool of us vs. them has been drawn, even in this situation.
The idea that there is a big difference between an undocumented person that's been here for a while and an asylum seeker — which creates this idea of “I am more deserving” — was powerful, compelling, and exploited to great effect by Trump.
Other voters said that they voted for Trump and myself because we’re both New Yorkers, and we speak very directly. That could be true. I don’t know. Right now, we’re in data-gathering mode.
What we do know is that a huge indicator of how someone voted is where they get their news from.
If you primarily get your news from social media or Google, those are actually right-leaning audiences. If you primarily get your news from sources like newspapers, you went left.
More questions and answers to come.
In solidarity,
Alexandria
Our fight is not about left and right. This is about top and bottom — and we have to organize from the bottom up.