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National Demographic Shifts Assert Themselves in Election Night Returns

Posted byHoumanitarian

Richard Dunham, Houston Chronicle
A demographic tidal wave helped President Barack Obama win a tight but decisive re-election victory Tuesday with record-breaking support from Hispanic voters, massive turnout from African-Americans and continuing enthusiasm from young Americans.

Although Republican nominee Mitt Romney won a larger share of the white vote than any presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan scored a landslide re-election in 1984, the former Massachusetts governor ended up a loser at the polls because of the racial, ethnic and generational changes that have altered the U.S. electoral landscape.

“We are an American family and we rise and fall together as one nation and one people,” Obama said in a victory speech that sought common ground with the Republican he defeated and unity for a deeply divided nation. “These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty.”

With more than 85 percent of the votes counted nationwide early Wednesday morning, Obama led Romney by 50 percent to 49 percent in the popular vote. But Obama already had won enough states to clinch the 270 electoral votes needed to secure re-election.

[…] Obama’s electoral vote landslide is a reflection of the changing face of America. The portion of nonwhite voters in the electorate has tripled over the last four decades to 28 percent on Tuesday. The Democratic incumbent led among African Americans by 93 percent to 7 percent – the best performance by a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Heavy African American turnout in Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Richmond and Miami changed the dynamic in five battleground states. In key swing states, Romney received just 1 percent of the African American vote in Florida and 3 percent in Ohio and Virginia.

Meanwhile, Latino voters, energized by tough Republican rhetoric on immigration, voted Democratic by 69 percent to 30 percent, tipping the balance of power in a string of states including Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.

“Gov. Romney’s shift to the right on the issue of immigration during the GOP primary season made it impossible for him to equal the number of Latino votes that George W. Bush received in 2000 and 2004,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan. “Efforts by numerous states to curtail early voting and require photo identification seem to have motivated these groups to record turnout numbers.”

In addition to minority voters, Obama’s majority-making coalition included young voters, highly educated citizens and women…
(Read more of this story at the Houston Chronicle)

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