A new poll by NBC of voters in the districts filled with predominately white, less educated, rural voters that flipped in 2016, finds a plurality of them think the country is worse off than before he "won."
One year after Donald Trump’s shocking election upset, many Americans who live in the key counties that propelled him to victory remain unconvinced that the country is better off now that he’s in the White House, a new poll from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal shows.
The poll, which sampled residents of 438 counties that either flipped from voting Democratic in the 2012 presidential election to Republican in 2016, or saw a significant surge for Trump last year, found that ...a plurality — 41 percent — say the country is worse off now than it was when Trump became commander in chief. An additional 26 percent say the state of the nation has remained about the same.
And overall, slightly more than half — 53 percent — say they do not think Trump has a clear agenda on how to address the major issues facing the country.
One way to look at all this: In the first national elections with no reported Russian interference since 2016, association with Donald Trump had a substantial negative impact. One wonders whether but for Russia's ads, he would have even carried these rural hotbeds of discontent in 2016. I hope Robert Mueller's investigation will ultimately provide an answer to that question.