Don't stereotype voters, authors of book on populist coalition warn at Book Rap

Voters should not be typecast, said authors Selena Zito and Brad Todd of voters they interviewed for their book, “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics,” in a discussion of the book at a National Press Club Book Rap Wednesday evening.

“You get into their lives and find they are not stereotypes,” said Zito of voters in the 2016 presidential election she and Todd interviewed. “They took their vote seriously.”

For the book, Zito and Todd interviewed people in areas of the U.S. who voted for Donald Trump but previously had supported Democrats. Two-thirds of the voters they interviewed had voted for President Obama in 2012.

Zito and Todd said their interviews identified several archetypes. Notable were voters, whom they called “red-blooded and blue-collared,” who had worked in blue-collar, hourly wage or physical-labor jobs but lost their employment in the past seven years.

Some of the areas in which Zito and Todd conducted interviews, they said, had not voted voted Republican since Richard Nixon’s candidacy.

The authors said they found there is no one category Trump voters fit into. Many of the voters they interviewed, they said, had voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries. One voter, they noted, reported he voted for “shared priorities, not shared values.“

When asked why more reporters missed what was going on in voters’ minds during the election, the authors said that many small town and regional newspapers have been “hollowed out.” As a result, they said, election coverage was more coastal, and coastal outlets rarely sent reporters into rural counties.

Another questioner asked whether Bernie Sanders could have beaten Trump had he won the Democratic nomination. The authors replied they think some of their interviewees would have voted for Sanders, but that Trump would have picked up some who voted for Clinton.

The authors said that Trump voters represent a new populist coalition that should not be overlooked. They said Trump did not create the coalition, he just knew how to reach it.

Zito worked for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for 11 years. She now works for the New York Post, writes a column for the Washington Examiner, and is a political analyst for CNN.

Todd is a founding partner for OnMessage Inc,. a Republican advertising and opinion research agency.

Derek Wallbank, chairman of the National Press Club's Board of Governors, interviewed the authors.