Economy
Trump's Rust Belt Bet
Smaller and mid-sized cities in the region played an outsize role in the Republican’s victory.
Yet another piece of conventional wisdom undone by Donald Trump’s electoral upset has been the Democratic advantage in the political ground game, particularly in cities.
The advantages of population density combined with urban demographics had long made Rust Belt cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Madison strongholds for Democrats. And for decades, Democratic voters in those cities were enough of a counterweight to offset Republican rural voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.