North Dakota AARP poll of those 50 and over: Cramer 46 and Heitkamp 43 (user search)
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  North Dakota AARP poll of those 50 and over: Cramer 46 and Heitkamp 43 (search mode)
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Author Topic: North Dakota AARP poll of those 50 and over: Cramer 46 and Heitkamp 43  (Read 1986 times)
pbrower2a
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« on: September 11, 2018, 08:20:43 AM »

A lot of the older population in ND are old-school, farming, WWC Dems. The younger  generation is Likely R due to the oil boom.

Nationwide polls suggest that elderly voters (65+) are turning against Trump. Maybe they have memories of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks and best recognize Donald Trump as monstrously abnormal in American politics. They have never seen his antics in American politics, and they find his conduct terribly upsetting.

Note also that farm owners are a very old demographic, and Trump's trade war hurt them. North Dakota farmers stand to be hurt by the tariffs and trade war that cuts commodity prices (revenue) and increases costs (anything imported or that can be consigned to pay for something imported, as with vehicle insurance... in case your auto liability ends up paying for foreign-made parts for a vehicle). Farmers buy much imported stuff, and tariffs are in essence a steep sales tax on imports, even if the tariffs have some exemptions.

But with farm owners are also farm families... and those are chips off the old block in politics. If you are 40 and still living on the farm where your 68-year-old parents are, you want the family farm to prosper.. and you know what butters your bread (if you are a dairy farmer) and where your bread comes from (if you are a grain farmer).

The younger generation in North Dakota may be more conservative due to the oil boom in North Dakota, as Trump is extremely sympathetic to the energy industry -- even to the extent of trying to get people to buy gas-guzzling vehicles as replacement for gas-sipping vehicles. But this said, those oil-field workers buy imported stuff, and when their i-devices start getting much more expensive due to tariffs on imports they won't be happy.

Tariffs are taxes -- bad taxes, capriciously imposed and administered. tariffs can more than offset the minuscule scraps that people other than the super-rich get in cuts in income taxes. I doubt that that goes well in even the most conservative states.

The AARP poll demonstrates that older people in North Dakota, as in Maine (a very different state in demographics and political heritage), are no longer sympathetic to Trump. Note well that the average age of a voter in America has typically been over 50. This age group is still amenable to mainstream GOP values. I'm guessing that North Dakota politics heavily involve farm families and their interests, and that so long as Republican policies do not hurt farm interests, farm families largely vote Republican out of concern for taxes... in most political years. 2016 may have seemed normal enough in North Dakota, but 2018 isn't, and 2020 probably won't be.  

North Dakota has not voted for a Democratic nominee for President since 1964, and hasn't otherwise voted for the Democratic nominee for President since 1936. It was one of only twelve states to vote for Dewey in 1944 and one of only ten to vote for Willkie in 1940. In 1928 it may have been more Democratic than the USA as a whole in Hoover's blowout defeat of Al Smith in 1928 (roughly 55-44, nationally 58-41 for Hoover -- economic distress was hitting farm states before the 1929 Market Crash), but it went nearly 70-28 for FDR in 1932.

Wild swings can happen, and I am not predicting one in North Dakota. Farmers and farm families vote their pocket-books, and they are not stupid.        
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2018, 08:38:29 AM »
« Edited: September 11, 2018, 09:10:18 AM by pbrower2a »

I don't know if this is a good poll for Heitkamp or Cramer, but I do think Cramer will win.

It cannot help Cramer. He must show himself a conventional Republican without being unduly connected to the personality of Donald Trump to win the Senate race in  North Dakota. In a normal political year, Heitkamp goes down, as do McCaskill in Missouri, Brown in Ohio, Donnelly in Indiana, Manchin in West Virginia, Nelson in Florida, Smith in Minnesota (appointed and not elected), and perhaps even Baldwin in Wisconsin, Casey in Pennsylvania,  and Stabenow in Michigan. Heller holds on in Nevada, and even if Flake retires, Democrats have no chance of picking up an open seat in Arizona. The GOP lead in the Senate goes from one seat or two (assuming that Doug Jones gets no chance at a flukish win in Alabama) to nine or more, and Republicans might even get a filibuster-proof Senate. But President Trump makes the 2018 midterm abnormal.  

How would that change American life? I can imagine that the Pledge of Allegiance  is amended to include "the capitalist system" as an object of patriotic reverence.

At this point, the only choice that North Dakota voters (or any other voters in states with Senate races) have is to vote in such elections as there are in North Dakota. If they dislike Trump and his policies enough they will vote for the Democrat.

The Gravis poll of North Dakota is old, antedating the tariffs and of course the severest legal problems for the President. This is worse than the entire dirty-tricks campaign of Richard Nixon which took more than four years to have an effect upon the political order. Senator Heitkamp practically must run against the President in a state that is usually arch-conservative but holds the erratic and corrupt Donald Trump in contempt.

It's Cramer who stands to lose in North Dakota.  
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