College-educated whites turned off by Trump
ATLANTA — Wanda Melton has voted for every Republican presidential nominee since Ronald Reagan in 1980, but now the Georgia grandmother plans to cross over to support Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Melton is among a particular group of voters, whites with college degrees, who are resistant to Trump.
Romney’s strength with the group, for example, made for a close race in Florida, where President Obama won by less than 75,000 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast.
Some Republicans worry Trump’s approach — his unvarnished, sometimes uncouth demeanor and his nationalist and populist arguments — guarantees his defeat, because the same outsider appeal that attracts many working class and even college-educated white men alienates other voters with a college degree.
Ann Robinson, 64, is a lifelong Republican in Trump’s home state of New York, a Democratic stronghold that the real estate tycoon cites as an example of where he can “expand the map.”
Lew Oliver, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party in Florida, said he’s prepared for an uphill fight in no small part because of Trump’s struggle among more educated voters.
Romney drew support from 56 percent of white voters with college degrees, according to 2012 exit polls.
Polling from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center pointed to particularly stark numbers among white women with at least a bachelor’s degree.