EMPLOYMENT AND BUSINESS losses are mounting in key swing states just a year out from President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection bid. And the losses are being felt particularly acutely in the industrial and agricultural sectors – a critical part of the base that helped Trump win the White House in 2016.
But in several of these key swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Trump is not exactly hurting for support from his core constituency. Recent polls in all three states suggest Trump’s job approval – and opposition to House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry – remains strong among the demographic groups and in the geographic areas that supported him the most fervently in 2016.
Despite agricultural upheaval, industrial weakness and a monthslong manufacturing recession – which are being felt particularly acutely in some of 2016’s most pro-Trump counties – the president has yet to see much erosion in support from groups that overwhelmingly backed him three years ago.