(NewsNation) — Ohio is the epicenter of a seismic shift happening in American politics where the two parties are essentially trading core constituencies when it comes to white voters.
In the state and across America, blue-collar workers are turning red and white-collar college grads are shifting to blue.
Conventional wisdom had long shown that Ohio’s manufacturing base and blue-collar neighborhoods were the bedrock of the Democratic party, while college graduates with high-paying jobs generally voted for Republican platforms, like lower taxes and deregulating business.
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But voters’ attitudes are proving otherwise.
“The city workers, union workers… he (Donald Trump) looks out for us… and he does care,” John Wesolowski, an Ohio Republican said.
Trump’s “America first” policies have scored big in parts of the state, fueling a populism that has upended politics.
Joshua Zingher, a political science professor at Old Dominion University, calls this shift a “diploma divide.”
He said it’s a realignment based on how many years a person spends in college exposed to more liberal views on issues like abortion, gender identity, and immigration.
“How much education that you have, formal education shapes how you vote now more than ever before,” he said. “Generally, we see people with higher levels of education have more liberal attitudes on these culture war issues.”
Steve Sozia, a retired Ohio lawyer, volunteers to give free legal services at the southern border saying that many of the migrants crossing over “are actually fleeing the type of people that Trump accuses them of being.”
While there are more college grads in the U.S. than ever before, they often settle in urban areas to be near jobs. This means states with smaller cities and fewer college grads, like Ohio and Iowa, have turned more red.
States like North Carolina and Arizona, which are luring more college graduates into their workforce, are also shifting.
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This shift presents a problem for Democrats, Zingher said.
“Adding more votes in places like Boston or the Bay Area doesn’t get you any more votes in the Electoral College.”
It also has serious implications for control of the Senate, which currently hangs in the balance.
In Ohio, incumbent Sherrod Brown is the last statewide elected Democrat and he’s locked in a fierce battle to keep his job.
If he isn’t able to hold on, the Senate will likely turn red.
Brown “has voted with Biden numerous times,” Wesolowski said. “Yeah, I’m not voting for him.”