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Perhaps because I am a bit of a policy wonk, one of the things I most enjoy after an election is going through the exit polls to find out exactly who supported the winners and why. My colleague Doug Marquardt has written a great piece about the importance of liberals for this victory, but I also think we need to remember the people who made it happen.
So let’s look at the crucial senate races using CNN exit poll data. In Ohio, African Americans voted 85% for Brown. Seventy-two percent of those with incomes under $15,000 voted for Brown and 64% of those with incomes under $30,000 were Brown supporters. Once you get above $30,000 the support for Brown goes down steadily, the higher the income. Then come the union members–75% of them voted for Brown. In short, Brown’s most enthusiastic supporters were African Americans, low income people, and union members. Without them Brown would have had a much closer race. The poll also asked whether voters felt they were getting ahead, staying the same or falling behind. Seventy-six percent of those who felt they were falling behind voted for Brown.
Moving to the too-close-to-call-until-Allen-conceded Virginia senate race we see a similar pattern. Eighty-five percent of African Americans supported Webb. As for income, 64% of those with incomes under $15,000 were Webb supporters as were 59% of those making under $30,000.
In Pennsylvania, 90% of African Americans supported Casey–an incredible number. The income figures for Casey parallel those of the other winning Senate candidates with 76% of those with incomes under $15,000 supporting Casey. Sixty-eight percent of union households also supported Casey.
I could go on and cite similar figures for other winning Democratic senate candidates, but if this party is to remain true to its base when it comes time to start legislating in Congress, they had better remember who it was that got them there: people of color, the poor, and union members. Without them they would have won none of those races or they certainly would have been a lot closer. These are people who probably don’t read blogs, who are trying to get by on what little income they have, who know the playing field has already been tilted so steeply it looks to them like an unclimbable cliff. They are people who maybe long ago should have lost faith in democracy, who should have joined that still growing largest party in America–the nonvoters, but they did not. These are people who the GOP has been trying to intimidate out of voting, who after 2000 and 2004 could have been expected to give up hope. But they did not. In their optimism, in their refusal to quit on democracy is a message we should all take to heart as we ponder the aftermath of this victory.
As Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders deliver their talk about moderation and trot out their agenda they had best remember who brought them to this dance and why. This is not about “moderation;” it is about whether America will help level the playing field that has been tilted away from these people by Republicans who believe the heart of democracy lies in those who live in mansions and ride in chauffeured cars not in those every day Americans who go to work each day and just try to make ends meet.
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