Election: The Clinton World Defined

“more than one-third of Democrats in the new House come from only three states: California, New York, and Massachusetts. Two-thirds are from either the West Coast or the East Coast.”

—Lisa Boothe, Washington Examiner

Many seek to understand how Clinton could win the popular vote over Trump by (now) 2.6 million, yet lose decisively in the Electoral College.  The answer, as Lisa Boothe shows in relation to Democratic domination of East and West Coast representation in Congress, is that progressives concentrate in mostly coastal big cities.


Clinton's Base of Strength

More than one-third of Clinton’s popular vote, 34.3%, came from just six states: the California-New York-Massachusetts concentration Boothe singled out, plus Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington DC’s Virginia suburbs (see map, hit to enlarge).  Clinton’s winning margin over Trump in these six states plus DC metro Virginia totaled 9.2 million votes. That’s 3.6 times Clinton’s total winning margin; wasted extra votes.

These seven states including Virginia (that state's DC suburbs delivered Virginia to Clinton) provided nearly three-fifths (152 electoral votes, see map above) of Clinton’s needed 270.  Yet just a few of the seven's 9.2 million extra votes -- if cast elsewhere -- would have easily given Clinton the 38 electoral votes she so needed beyond the 232 she gained.

The AMTRAK Acela Corridor

Progressives rule California and the Boston-DC so-called “Acela Corridor” (see AMTRAK’s Acela route, hit to enlarge).

Illinois' Cook County (Chicago)

Plus Chicago. Chicago merits recognition because Clinton’s winning margin in Chicago’s Cook County exceeded her Illinois winning margin.  Outside Chicago, Clinton lost Illinois by 216,000 votes.

In the six states plus the Virginia DC suburbs, Clinton won a whopping 63% of the votes that went to either her or Trump.  In the rest of America, Trump won 56% of the two-way vote.

DC's Virginia Suburbs

When one thinks of the Acela Corridor, one thinks of Boston’s and the Ivy League’s academic influence, the concentrated media and financial clout of greater New York City, and the powerhouse DC metro area with its “Hunger Games”-like government-based wealth and power.

Acela means Harvard-MIT, the New York Times, publishing, foundations, Broadway, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, FOX, and the Washington Post. Chicago is “Second City” to all this. California is the entertainment industry and Silicon Valley. Just think, 63% of everyone in these six-plus power states voted Clinton over Trump! 

No wonder “the world” thought Trump was doomed.