This had to really, really hurt the NY Times to publish. After all the scaremongering, the negative stories on Trump, the refusal to run any but a handful of stories buried deep on the good things Trump has done (the story on Trump signing the animal cruelty bill was nowhere on the front page on the web nor the paper), all the negative opinion pieces, spinning good news as bad, telling us the economy is cratering and a recession is coming, all the impeachment theater, etc, and we get this
They Voted Democratic. Now They Support Trump.
Midterm victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin gave Democrats hope of retaking the Rust Belt battleground states that handed the presidency to Donald J. Trump in 2016.
Yet success in the midterms might not mean as much for Democratic presidential candidates as the party might think. Nearly two-thirds of voters in six battleground states who voted for President Trump in 2016 — but for Democratic congressional candidates in 2018 — say they intend to back the president against each of his top rivals, according to recent polling by The New York Times Upshot/Siena College.
The results suggest that the party’s winning formula in last year’s midterms may not be so easy to replicate in a presidential election. The Democrats’ relatively moderate House candidates succeeded in large part by flipping a crucial segment of voters who backed the president in 2016. If these voters remain open-minded again in 2020, Democrats will have a ready-made blueprint for winning back the crucial Rust Belt battlegrounds.
Of course, the Times attempts to spin this, denigrating the voters as “overwhelmingly white, 60 percent are male, and two-thirds have no college degree”, because, obviously, they aren’t allowed to have an opinion.
Other voters say they are preparing to take an even greater leap: vote for Mr. Trump after supporting Democratic congressional candidates in 2018 and Mrs. Clinton in 2016.
In the survey, 7 percent of those who supported Mrs. Clinton in 2016 said they now approved of the president’s performance — despite his personality and his Twitter account, many said.
What this really is is a warning for Democrats to get their buts in gear to attempt to find a way to win.
Many of the voters cited economic strength as a major reason to support Mr. Trump in 2020, even if they didn’t support him last time. Also, certain voters who support Trump said they had soured on Democrats because of partisan fighting, culminating in impeachment hearings.
So, he’s doing pretty good and Democrats are unhinged.
