Politics

Only One In Four Non-College Whites Support Obama

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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President Barack Obama is supported by only one-in-four whites who didn’t go to college, down from the one-in-two who supported him in 2009, according to Gallup.

His support among non-college whites is now at 27 percent, even though he is supported by 41 percent of whites with college credentials, says a Nov. 25 report by Gallup.

In November 2014, Democratic candidates won only 34 percent of votes from this non-college group. That’s down two points from 2012, when Obama won 36 percent of the group. In both elections, the group comprised a huge 36 percent of the electorate.

That’s shifting non-college white vote is a big problem for the Democratic politician who runs for president in 2016, because white non-college voters will likely be 33 percent of the 2016 electorate.

GOP leaders, including Sen. Jeff Sessions, say Obama’s disregard of working-class Americans of all races will help the GOP win the 2016 election if the GOP candidate offers populist policies that aid both white and non-white working-class Americans. Those policies should include fewer low-wage migrants who compete for Americans’ jobs, Sessions argues.

Democrats counter that the skew in white votes is distorted by lopsided opposition to Obama among southern non-college whites: “Obama won white non-college voters in New England by 51 to 42 percent, tied Romney in the west north central states by 47 to 46 percent, and trailed by only seven points in the Mid-Atlantic by 44 to 51 percent,” according to a Democratic polling firm.

Recent polls also show that Obama’s amnesty policy is also deeply unpopular among non-college voters.

It is opposed 56 percent to 35 percent by Americans who earn between $30,000 and $50,000, according to a November Rasmussen poll. Only 24 percent of this lower-middle income group thinks the amnesty will be good for the economy, while 57 percent believe it will be bad for the economy.

It is also disproportionately unpopular in the mostly-white Midwest states that the GOP’s presidential candidate needs to win in 2016. For example, 26 percent of respondents in the west strongly supported Obama’s new amnesty policy, but only 16 percent of people in the Midwest strongly approve, according to a late November YouGov/Huffington Post poll. Thirty-five percent of respondents in the Midwest strongly disapprove of Obama’s amnesty.

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