I believe that the Trump phenomenon will cause a significant amount of people to register to vote for the Republican primaries, whether they intend to vote for Trump or for another candidate. This situation could be better than any "get-out-to-vote" drive that the Republicans have ever executed.
The result could be a significant turn-out improvement in the general election. Is there any evidence that a hotly contested primary leads to greater turnout in the GE?
I was noticing that in the mountains of Virginia, just how low the white turnout was, in contradistinction to the black vote, with respect to which the turnout is amazingly high in VA. Maybe the barbarian could energize them. His loss of votes in more urban/educated places however, will swamp that.
Which suggests that if the Pubs really want to contest VA, they need to go to the mountains, and try to get folks interested in voting. Maybe offer them free beer or something.
