The Republican Party is Endangered in the Northeast

Democrats made great strides on Tuesday to rebuild their "blue wall" in the Midwest by capturing Governorships in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan, and holding their seat in Pennsylvania. However, their victories in the Northeast were even more impressive. Democrats captured all but one congressional district in New Jersey and flipped three more seats in New York.

New York Times: And in the six other states in the Northeast, the lone remaining Republican congressman, Representative Bruce Poliquin of Maine, was clinging to his seat on Wednesday, his fate to be decided by the second choices of third-party voters through ranked-choice voting.

The President is especially unpopular in the Northeast and voters sent him a clear message. But it's been coming for some time and Trump has just exacerbated the problem for Republicans.

New York Times: From a tax bill that penalized high-tax blue states to a message far more attuned to the ears of rural America than the cities and educated suburbs that dominate the Northeast, Mr. Trump accelerated and hardened a regional realignment that has been underway for years. Almost no Republicans appeared immune to the region’s shifting political winds, no matter how they positioned themselves.

It's unclear if Republicans can claw their way back in the Northeast, but it's unlikely as long as President Trump and his allies in Congress focus their message on rural and evangelical voters in the South and Great Plains. In the meantime, the Red-Blue state divide continues to expand and deepen.

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