Democrats have been trying to laugh off Donald Trump but they’re very concerned that Donald Trump could win next week in the blue state of Massachusetts where he currently holds a massive lead in the Republican field.
Politico reports:
Trump’s victory lab
Massachusetts is a blue state, but it’s full of the voters Trump would need to notch a White House win.
Donald Trump is poised to romp across the South on Super Tuesday, cementing a hold on the Republican presidential nomination. But it’s little-watched and deeply liberal Massachusetts that’s sending shivers down Democrats’ spines.
Massachusetts, they fear, is where Trump could chart a course to the White House.
The state — the largest non-Southern prize on the GOP calendar next week — is packed with the independent, blue-collar voters that will decide key general election states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. And if Trump can trounce his Republicans rivals by pulling in those voters in Massachusetts on Tuesday, Democrats are afraid he could do the same to them nationwide in November.
“It’d be like the canary in the coal mine,” said Doug Rubin, a Democratic strategist who helped steer Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren to statewide victories in Massachusetts. “If Trump is able to convince a lot of moderate-to-conservative independents to vote in the primary and he does really well here, that would be a warning sign for Democrats going forward.”
Massachusetts is a bastion of Democratic power — and a virtual lock to go to the Democratic nominee in the general election — but it also has a deeply moderate streak that has enabled Republicans like Mitt Romney and Scott Brown to prevail in statewide contests. Their coalitions depended on wresting support from independent voters and the pockets of Reagan Democrats in industrial cities like Lowell, Quincy and Fall River. Rubin said sharply increased turnout in those cities, coupled with a blowout victory for Trump, would be a worrisome sign for Democrats.
What will Democrats do if Trump proves popular in such a liberal state?
Expect panic from the left.
