Tag Archives: election 2024

Latinos for Trump?

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Alongside the narrative that the Republican Party is a white supremacist party, we hear a narrative that Latino voters are shifting toward Trump. This matters because they make up about 15% of U.S. voters. I’ll share a few thoughts:

  • First, the U.S. Census has revised how it asks people if they identify as Latino over the years, and is considering revising it again. This makes it a little hard to track over time. It occurs to me that it is just a very broad group with some very disparate people, ranging from Puerto Ricans to people with Cuban ancestry to South American ancestry to Spanish ancestry and newly arrived immigrants to families who have been in the U.S. for many generations. So I am just not sure how predictive this category is of how people are going to vote.
  • For people who have immigrated legally and recently, not all are going to be sympathetic to undocumented immigrants. It may seem unfair when you feel you have followed the rules to see that others have not. People also may see newly arrived immigrants as competing for jobs, whether this is really borne out by the facts or not. So Republican anti-immigrant messaging may appeal to some, although the ads we are seeing in Pennsylvania right now are just blatant racist lies, in my opinion.
  • People who view themselves as succeeding through hard work resent any sense that the government is taking their income and redistributing it to people who do not work hard. So the Republicans can trot out their decades-old anti-tax and “welfare queen” messages and they are going to resonate with some people, sometimes.
  • This may be a sensitive topic, but there is some anti-black racism among some Latinos, sometimes, and so even blatantly racist messaging from the Republicans is going to reach some people.
  • For approximately 50 years, the Democrats have made promises to the working class and middle class and failed to deliver them, time and time again. The Republicans don’t offer solutions, but they can just keep pointing out that the Democrats have failed to deliver, and offer us people to blame. This message reaches a lot of people of all races who are hurting in this country.

So those are the problems. Now our politicians can just put on their thinking caps and come up with practical solutions, right?

April election poll check-in, or “it’s just the fading price shocks in gas and groceries, stupid”

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Here’s where we stand as I write this on April 3, 2024. Sure, there are all sorts of reasons the polls might be wrong and it is a long time until election day…but I would rather be ahead in the polls and saying that than behind, wouldn’t you? Or even behind and getting less behind.

STATE2020 RESULTMost Recent Real Clear Politics Poll Average (as of 4/3/24)
ArizonaBiden +0.4%Trump +5.2% (March 1: Trump +5.5)
GeorgiaBiden +0.3%Trump +4.5% (March 1: Trump +6.5)
WisconsinBiden +0.6%Trump +0.6% (March 1: Trump +1.0%)
North CarolinaTrump +1.3%Trump +4.6% (March 1: Trump +5.7%)
PennsylvaniaBiden +1.2%Trump +0.6% (March 1: Biden +0.8%)
MichiganBiden +2.8%Trump +3.4% (March 1: Trump +3.6%)
NevadaBiden +2.4%Trump +3.2% (March 1: Trump +7.7%)

The electoral college vote, as it stands at the moment, would be 312 for Trump to 226 for Biden. (March 1: 293 for Trump to 245 for Biden)

So the verdict is…Biden behind but getting less behind in every swing state (6 out of 7) except Pennsylvania. The Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina moves are all more than 1% towards Biden. Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan are less than 1% towards Biden. The Pennsylvania move is less than 1% towards Trump, but because this flips the state from slight Biden to slight Trump, Trump now leads all swing states and the electoral college looks even worse for Biden than a month ago.

Have we gone from “it’s the economy, stupid” to “it’s the rate of change in the rate of change in the price of groceries, compared to the rate of change of the rate of change in the price of groceries two years ago, stupid”? Maybe it’s that simple. Sure, there is plenty going on in the world in terms of war and peace and the collapsing biosphere that supports all life. But we are Americans, and we don’t base our votes on these things. At least not enough of us, enough of the time to make a difference compared to the damn price of groceries. All things being equal, I would wager on this trend continuing over the next seven months. Of course, all things will probably not be equal – a significant recession that throws a significant number of voters out of work would be the worst possible thing for Biden. Because it doesn’t matter so much how much the damn groceries cost if you have no money at all. On the other hand, most other crises might tend to give Biden a chance to show some leadership, which at least some voters might like. And of course, Biden and/or Trump could drop dead at any time. I am not predicting any of these things, just defining a range of things that could happen.

March election poll check-in

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Here’s where we stand as I write this on March 1, 2024. Polling averages now include some polls concluded in late February.

STATE2020 RESULTMost Recent Real Clear Politics Poll Average (as of 3/1/24)
ArizonaBiden +0.4%Trump +5.5% (February 4: Trump +4.5)
GeorgiaBiden +0.3%Trump +6.5% (February 4: Trump +7.2)
WisconsinBiden +0.6%Trump +1.0% (February 4: Trump +0.2%)
North CarolinaTrump +1.3%Trump +5.7% (February 4: Trump +5.4%)
PennsylvaniaBiden +1.2%Biden +0.8% (February 4: Biden +0.3%)
MichiganBiden +2.8%Trump +3.6% (February 4: Trump +5.1%)
NevadaBiden +2.4%Trump +7.7% (February 4: Trump +7.0%)

The electoral college vote, as it stands at the moment, would be 293 for Trump to 245 for Biden.

About the best you can say is that things look bad for Biden, but it is not unequivocally clear that they are not getting worse… If only elections were decided by the second derivative of the vote!

Do I even need to make the case against Trump?

  • Climate change is just beginning to impact our homes, our economic livelihoods and our food supply. The impacts we are seeing today are the result of emissions decades ago, and we have not even begun to see the impacts of more recent emissions let alone today’s emissions. We are just on the cusp of starting to bend back the curve of producing more emissions every year, and this progress needs to continue if we are going to see impacts continue to increase, then peak, then finally start to decrease (derivatives again!) We are doing too little, too late, but at least we are doing something. Elect Trump and we will monkey wrench the whole process and set progress back by a decade AGAIN.
  • The threat from nuclear weapons (proliferation, use in war, use in terrorism, accidents) is high and getting higher. Trump let key treaties lapse, and electing him will bring this existential threat even closer to reality.
  • The United States is not doing so well that it can risk having morons in charge. Trump is just one singular moron, but he will appoint incompetent political hacks to key leadership positions whenever he gets a chance. The U.S. economy and bureaucracy might be able to blunder through four years of business as usual, but throw in one or more serious crises – war, plague, famine, natural disaster, financial/cyber-meltdown – and the hacks will not be able to deal with it. Covid-19 was just a taste of what a really serious crisis could look like. Without competent leadership, our ability to bounce back from a crisis is impaired, and either a succession of smallish crises or a single major crisis could be the one that brings out nation to its knees.

checking in on the 2024 election

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Here’s where we stand as I write this on February 4, 2024. Most of the polling averages now include some polls conducted in January.

STATE2020 RESULTMost Recent Real Clear Politics Poll Average (as of 2/4/24)
ArizonaBiden +0.4%Trump +4.5%
GeorgiaBiden +0.3%Trump +7.2%
WisconsinBiden +0.6%Trump +0.2%
North CarolinaTrump +1.3%Trump +5.4% (RCP doesn’t provide this average but I have averaged the ones they provide, some of which are quite old)
PennsylvaniaBiden +1.2%Biden +0.3%
MichiganBiden +2.8%Trump +5.1%
NevadaBiden +2.4%Trump +7.0%

It is not hard to figure this out from the above numbers, but if I make a customized electoral college map on 270towin.com, the picture is awful for Biden, with 293 Trump electoral votes to 245 for Biden.

The “538 Politics Podcast” generally has been much reduced in quality post-Nate Silver and post-ABC buyout, but they did have this interesting episode (actually – I can’t figure out how to link directly to it, this is how shitty their website is now – but search for “How Americans feel about the economy”) recently about research on how peoples’ shock over episodes of inflation “decay” over time. Basically, the shock declines by about 50% of the remaining amount over the course of a year. So, even though the rate of price increase has declined, we are now feeling about 50% of the shock from the shocking inflation of 2022. By the November election, we will be feeling about 25% of the shock. Is this enough to count on? Certainly not, but even to realize this the economy needs to stay as good as it is now for the next nine months, and inflation needs to not go back up again.

my first take on the 2024 U.S. presidential election

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With the Iowa Republican caucus in the books as I write this (Tuesday, January 16, 2024), stuff is starting to get real.

It seems like barring unforeseen major developments, we are headed for another Biden vs. Trump election. In the absence of any other information, I would just say look at what happened last time. Biden won pretty handily, and really nothing major has changed in any rational sense, except that there hasn’t been a recession, war, or pandemic (that has affected the vast majority of the U.S. public significantly). What there has been is inflation, and not just inflation but inflation following a long period of no inflation in many voters’ living memories. And that seems to me to be the one thing making the difference for Biden. There is just nothing else that makes sense to me.

Anyway, tiresome as it gets, we know it comes down to the “battleground states”. There were three states in 2020 with a voting margin of less than 1% (Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin), two within 1-2% (North Carolina and Pennsylvania), and two within 2-3% (Michigan and Nevada). That’s it – no, Florida and Ohio were not close. 7 states that matter out of 50 and some territories. I got these numbers from CNN.

Sure, it’s early to start looking at state-level general election polls. Sure, there are all sorts of problems with polls. Sure, other candidates could theoretically be nominated. Sure, third party candidates could affect the race. But the numbers below are at least averages of several polls over a period of time which might smooth out at least some biases, and they paint a consistent and deeply worrying picture for Biden at this stage.

STATE2020 RESULTMost Recent Real Clear Politics Poll Average (as of 1/16/24)
ArizonaBiden +0.4%Not Available
GeorgiaBiden +0.3%Trump +6.6%
WisconsinBiden +0.6%Not Available
North CarolinaTrump +1.3%Not Available
PennsylvaniaBiden +1.2%Trump +0.3%
MichiganBiden +2.8%Trump +5.3%
NevadaBiden +2.4%Trump +5.4%

I’ll try to update this from time to time. If I were much smarter, I would try to automate it. Well, I would like to think I am smart enough to figure that out, but it is just not close to the top of my project list.

RFK Jr.? Michelle Obama?

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There’s talk of a viable RFK Jr. candidacy and even a Trump-RFK Jr. ticket. I first became aware of him many years ago when he was talking about mercury poisoning in Rolling Stone. I am concerned about mercury, and lead, and possibly even floride, but his grasp of science turned out to be bogus. Unless you believe there is a vast conspiracy to cover up the fact that we are all being poisoned. I don’t think so. We are being exposed to a vast variety of chemicals in modern industrialized countries and we should do more to understand and control their effects.

I haven’t looked into his Covid vaccine denialism much. If the point is that no vaccine is risk-free, sure, but this vaccine clearly saved tens of millions of lives worldwide. And the technology holds great promise to cure a wide range of diseases including many types of cancer. It also holds perils from (more?) lab leaks to bioterrorism to biological warfare.

Happy topics. The problem with RFK Jr. even if you read things he has written or things written about him and are tempted to nod your head, is…it is impossible to listen to him talk. Seriously – give it a try. It’s just too awkward to even contemplate. He makes W. Bush or even Trump look like a slick public speaker.

Michelle Obama? I don’t know. People might vote for her but (1) she is not a professional politician and (2) she has said a million times she is not interested. She is basically a celebrity with some name recognition.

In a country of 332 million, there have to be some people with (1) charisma, (2) leadership and public speaking ability, and (3) ideas. These three things do not preclude corruption and evil of course, but they are a starting point. Will the real potential leaders please stand up?