DES MOINES, IA (AP)– Democrats say they need to rebuild the political “blue wall” of traditionally Democratic Midwest and Great Lakes states captured by Republican Donald Trump with an appeal to white working-class voters.
Hillary Clinton's failure to hold on to key blocs of those voters helped seal Trump's stunning electoral victory and left Democrats with a void, perhaps a long-term one, on the party's national battlefront.
Trump carried Michigan and Pennsylvania, where Democratic candidates had won the previous six presidential elections. Trump also won Wisconsin, held by Democrats in seven straight attempts, and Iowa, carried only once by a Republican in the same period.
In each, Trump far outpolled 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney in rural areas, while also capturing small towns and working-class suburbs that more typically vote Democratic.
