>
Article snippet: Democrats made major gains across the Sunbelt in the midterm elections, changing the political landscape in states like Arizona and Nevada ahead of the 2020 elections. The party netted many of those gains by winning over Republicans in the suburbs and aggressively courting minority voters, a coalition that could spell trouble in Southwestern states for MORE's reelection prospects and Republicans protecting their Senate majority. In Arizona, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in more than three decades in a state that Trump narrowly won in 2016, while the party also gained a majority of the state’s congressional delegation. In Nevada, Democrats tightened their grip on the purple state by picking up a Senate seat, a handful of statewide races and the governor’s mansion for the first time since 1994. Meanwhile, Democrats made significant House gains in the GOP strongholds of Texas and Southern California. For strategists, the wins reflect a widening rural-suburban divide where growing populations of college-educated voters, particularly in the suburbs, are rejecting Trump to help buoy Democrats. “The changing demography and growth in urbanization … creates a huge barrier between the message Trump’s putting out there and what those voters want,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Democrats believe that replicating these wins in the Sunbelt region in 2020 could help offset Midwest st... Link to the full article to read more