'Never Trump' Republicans Will Support Biden, Not Sanders

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/opinion/joe-biden-never-trump.html

Right-of-center voters are open to voting for a moderate Democrat. They have been helping one in the primaries.

By Sarah Longwell

Ms. Longwell is the director of Defending Democracy Together.

March 9, 2020

As more data emerge to explain former Vice President Joe Biden’s stunning victory on Super Tuesday, there are two clear demographics that propelled him: African-American voters and suburban voters with college degrees.

It’s a coalition that helped moderate Democrats flip seven governorships, two Senate seats and about 40 House districts (the newly Democratic suburbs alone would have secured a House majority) from red to blue in 2018. African-Americans have long made up a core of the Democratic voting base, but many of Mr. Biden’s college-educated, suburban supporters are right-leaning independents or moderate Republicans who supported candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney. They don’t want to re-elect Donald Trump. And they’re willing to cross over to vote for a Democrat — a moderate and mainstream Democrat.

These voters might not identify with the “Never Trump” group of conservatives who vociferously oppose the president. But in practice, that’s who they are. They often voted for Republicans in the past and are now firmly anti-Trump. These voters can create winning margins for Democrats in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and North Carolina in the general election.

Their numerical strength was on full display on Super Tuesday in the Virginia and Texas suburbs, which saw 74 percent and 87 percent higher voter turnout, respectively, than four years ago. These de facto Never Trumpers also showed up in large quantities in the suburbs of Charleston, S.C., where 58 percent more people voted in the Democratic primary last Tuesday compared with 2016. And they pulled the lever overwhelmingly for Joe Biden. In Iowa last month, while Democratic turnout was down from 2016 throughout the rest of the state, it spiked 38 percent in Dallas County — the far suburbs of Des Moines that had been stalwart Republican country not long ago.

</snip>

File this under "no shit".

[Turin_C3PO]

1. That's fine and I welcome their support.

However, I hope they don’t expect that the Democratic Party will incorporate their Republican views into our party. They can come around to our way of thinking, IMO.

[Demsrule86]

5. You have to have support for policy so while some things can get done...somethings won't.

If we get the Senate, we will get a public option,we will get help for dreamers and maybe immigration, tax cuts reversed...some help for college...and judges. Also a tax overall that makes the wealthy pay their fair share which must include taxes on those who live by investments...work shouldn't be taxed higher than gambling...$15.00 wage is a go too...but we must win the Senate.

[Turin_C3PO]

6. Sure,

we need to keep the House and win the Senate to get anything worthwhile done, I agree. I think Biden will have long coattails to ensure that will happen. Also, he’ll help down ballot state races, too.

[Demsrule86]

16. I agree with that. I think the filibuster has to go ...when will we ever have a 60 vote majority and

the next time GOP have power, they will do it IMHO.

[Turin_C3PO]

18. Yes, they need to axe the filibuster.

Or we’ll never get anything done with Moscow Mitch obstructing.

[BidenBacker]

22. Can we just axe McConnell instead?

I'll volunteer to swing it. Would be both an honor and a pleasure.

[jimfields33]

15. They believe Biden is center right

[Demsrule86]

17. No they believe he is not a socialist...Sanders doesn't play well with Democrats and moderate

Indies and GOP...

[LanternWaste]

19. Any data to support that?

Or just another bumper sticker, like "End of night will be Biden 300. Bernie 500"?

[jimfields33]

24. Repugs on the Biden bandwagon is all we need to know.

[MyNameGoesHere]

27. And what does it tell you?

How do you interpret that?

[dawg day]

2. I wouldn't assume as the author of the article does that the greater turnout was due to Republicans

or Never Trumpers.

I think probably many of those voters were independent or not very activist in most years, and were energized to vote this time.

[CentralMass]

3. If they had voted for Sanders it would have been called a devious republican/russian plot.

[TwilightZone]

9. Primary vs. general election.

Not even remotely the same thing.

[Sloumeau]

4. I would characterize a lot of them as voters who are capable of "swinging".

That is to say, they are people who are not permanently tied to one particular party. Sometimes they care more about the candidate than the party to which they belong.

[loyalsister]

7. The pull the ladder up behind them crowd

has an opinion and does not care about the quality of life for their grandkids. Nothing new here.

[pampango]

8. So if these primaries had been closed with only registerd Democrats voting, Biden would not

have done as well as he did?

We don’t advocate any candidate, but we do educate disaffected Republicans and right-leaning independents about their ability to vote in the Democratic primary in open-primary states like Virginia and Texas.

The data suggest that so far, they’ve voted in large numbers. … Voter turnout in the Texas and Virginia primaries last Tuesday was closer to the combined turnout from the 2016 Democratic and Republican primaries in those states than it was to the 2016 Democratic primaries alone.

The responses to our outreach made clear that these voters are looking not for the democratic socialist revolution that Senator Bernie Sanders would offer as the nominee, but simply for a Democrat they could trust to govern responsibly and end the chaos of Mr. Trump’s presidency. For many lapsed and former Republicans, voting for Mr. Biden is the least-bad option.

Mr. Biden may not offer these voters a galvanizing vision for the future. But to those exhausted by the past three years of political upheaval and nastiness, he offers something even better: basic human decency.

Defending Democracy Together is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans ...

https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/about-us/

[TwilightZone]

10. Voters are coming out for Biden, not Sanders.

That should be obvious, and the surge has been in Democratic voters.

The states where turnout was increased the most vs. 2016 and 2018, like Virginia, were states that Biden won easily.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/899849/democratic-turnout-nearly-doubled-virginia-virginia-democrats-are-gloating-bit

[pampango]

11. That is indeed obvious. But that was not my question which was related to the point of the OP. n/t

[TwilightZone]

13. It answered your question.

You asked if Biden would have done worse had the primaries been closed. The fact that Democrats are the ones driving the increase in turnout, including in states with open primaries, combined with the fact that he's doing significantly better with Democrats than Sanders, makes the answer pretty obvious.

[pampango]

14. Not according to the person from the republican organization who wrote the article in the OP. n/t

[LaMouffette]

12. We need a president for ALL Americans.

And that's Joe Biden. Unlike Trump and, unfortunately, Sanders, Biden will not be a my-way-or-the-highway kind of president. He will be a president who looks out for the interests of all Americans, even those who did not vote for him.

[Hortensis]

20. I'll file it under Good Job, Joe and Democratic Party!

This is what we have to have to win. It's what America has always had to have to function properly and has been broken: the ability, when necessary, to form a bipartisan majority to provide stability against extremism from either side and to fight the massive RW corruption and betrayal.

VP Biden's been running on doing just this, and with him hopefully it will outlast this election and we can turn the corner on this dangerous era.

[BidenBacker]

21. Here's a breakdown of a new Quinnipiac Poll

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3657

Indies favor Biden to Trump 52%-34% (+18%)
Indies favor Sanders to Trump 48%-35% (+13%)

Republicans favor Trump to Biden 91%-6% (-85%)
Republicans favor Trump to Sanders 94%-3% (-91%)

Democrats favor both Biden & Sanders over Trump by 93%-2% (+91%)

So Joe picks up an extra 5% of Indies and 6% of Pubbies.

Just one poll, however. The most important one is on November 3rd when the Russians get to vote.

[ibegurpard]

23. Never-Trump Republicans will vote Republican

Or third party. If they tell you otherwise they are lying. And that's not a defense of Sanders. Just stop making decisions based upon what Republicans are saying.

[blueinredohio]

26. Our local news said today older republican early voted democratic.

He said he will vote Trump in the general but Trump wanted them to vote democratic in the primary. Said he voted for Biden. Oops.

[Cha]

25. Kick