Angst over the economy helps Trump flip Great Lakes states
WASHINGTON — A fractured, discontented electorate handed Donald Trump the presidency, allowing him to breach a region that Democrat Hillary Clinton was banking on in her bid for the presidency.
Key battleground states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin had voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election for a generation. Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa have been part of winning Democratic maps, as well.
Trump outperformed expectations in all of them, moving most into the Republican column after President Barack Obama twice swept the region.
Exit polls and unofficial returns reflected deep racial, gender, economic and cultural divides nationally and across the Midwest and Great Lakes region, helping drive Trump’s success. His soaring popularity among white voters without a college degree was essential to his capturing the Rust Belt and holding off Clinton in battlegrounds elsewhere, with voters describing themselves as “fed up” and ready for a different, even if unpredictable, direction.