Did Hillary Clinton severely blunder in losing MI, WI, and PA?

[MARGINS6729]

Yes and no. Clinton did not completely neglect them, that is in thinking they were solid blue states that she didn't need to campaign in. She knew that they were competitive and campaigned in them. But in regards to Michigan and Wisconsin, she and her team neglected how competitive they actually were. Her team ignored complaints/concerns from people on the ground in Michigan since before the primary there and probably did the same in Wisconsin for the general election in which she never visited after the primary despite Bernie blowing her out of the water there.


Pennsylvania is trickier to say. Her team thought it was the most vulnerable of the three and invested in it accordingly, not to mention the Democrats knew the state could flip to the GOP  since they scheduled their convention there. But her team failed to predict just how badly she was going to be crushed in places like Westmoreland County and central Pennsylvania, thinking that the Philly suburbs would carry her through even though her team projected a loss in support amongst blue collar workers amongst the electorate. But contrary to common beliefs, the Democrats were able to win Pennsylvania in presidential races not just because of the Philadelphia area and it's suburbs but in winning Lackawanna, Erie, and Luzerne among others while not getting killed in the rest of the state. She thought that Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery along with Philadelphia and Allegheny counties would be enough but turnout there was not as high as they projected so she lost.

For me, I would have dumped Iowa, Ohio, and North Carolina( the latter after black turnout/early voting turnout was low) in favor of defending Michigan and Wisconsin and devoted more resources to purple/red areas in Pennsylvania. I'm not going to say she was wrong in devoting resources to Arizona though as  her campaigning there planted the seeds for what the Democrats have accomplished there since  and are trying to do now. She didn't really do very much in Georgia or Texas contrary to what some would tell you(some people in Georgia actually complained at the time). So yes, she screwed up in Michigan and Wisconsin by not devoting enough resources to them and probably could have done more in Pennsylvania but you can also understand why her team thought it did the best they could there.