Dems gain in ’burbs
Turnout akin to ’18 has voters picking Biden to take on Trump
BURNSVILLE, Minn. — Nearly two years after suburbanites helped drive a Democratic surge, there are clear signs these voters are engaged and primed to vote Democratic again.
Turnout in the Democratic presidential primary has been strong across suburban counties, from northern Virginia to Southern California, that fueled the 2018 wave.
In several key counties, turnout has exceeded that of four years ago. In some cases, it has bested the party’s recent high-water marks reached during the 2008 primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
That has been particularly good news now for Joe Biden. The former vice president, who’s running as a moderate, consensus candidate, soared to the top of the Democratic field this past week, showing strength in places such as Fairfax County in Virginia, and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. Many suburban Democrats said they are motivated by their desire to oust Trump and a fear that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Biden’s chief primary rival, is a riskier bet.
“My main goal is to not have Trump get reelected,” Gail Hayes, a 67-year-old retired child care provider, said outside a coffee shop in Burnsville, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb.
Hayes noted that she’s ideologically more aligned with progressives such as Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who dropped out of the race Thursday. But Hayes described herself as pragmatic and said she voted for Biden because she thinks he can win.
“I wanted to pick someone more moderate,” she said. “I really didn’t decide until a couple hours before I voted.”
The Democratic turnout overall has risen, with Iowa, North Carolina and Texas topping 2016 levels, but not the 2008 spike. Virginia was an exception, jumping from 986,000 votes in 2008 to 1.3 million.
Much of that increase is coming in American suburbs that will be pivotal to the November general election.
Consider Burnsville, part of once-reliably Republican Dakota County. The sprawling community has grown more racially diverse and more
Democratic in recent years. The strip mall where Hayes grabbed a coffee also housed a halal grocer linked with an African restaurant and a Latin grocer linked with a taco shop.
A surge of anti-Trump sentiment in the area helped Democrats flip a Republicanheld House seat in 2018.
Now Dakota County is among the places Trump’s campaign must pick up ground if it wants to make good on its promise to win Minnesota in November.
“The suburbs have been a killing zone for Republicans in the Trump era,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant, a top adviser on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s failed 2016 presidential campaign. Conant said Republicans must do better to attract young families and professionals or Democratic gains in suburbs will almost certainly continue.
The opening contests of the
Democratic presidential primary, including 14 held Tuesday, brought few signs that the Trump backlash in the suburbs has ebbed. In a dozen counties with swing suburban communities, Democrats cast more ballots than they did four years ago, an analysis found. In nine of the 12 counties, the vote totals eclipsed 2008.
The numbers are a sign of both the energy and the population growth driving Demo