Realigning elections and core voter parties - US

• what are the links between parties and their core voting coalitions?

  • both parties rely on core voter groups
  • realigning elections can damage this
  • parties aim to fuse together different but complementary groups
  • political juggling - radical policies
  • defect to abstention
• who are the core voting groups and policies for the Republicans?

  • white evangelicals, older voters, social conservatives, gun owners, those in suburban areas, those fearful of large-scale immigration
• who are the core voting groups of the democrats?

  • ethnic minorities, younger voters, social liberals, LGBTQ, urban dwellers, supporters of feminism and gun control
• what is realignment?


  when a particular group of voters changes or realigns with a fresh political party pr candidate
• What states realigned in the US elections between 1960 and to 1972?

  southern states
• Why did southern states realign in the elections between 1960 to 1972?

  Civil rights issues - white working class men thought that the democrat party was leaving them behind
• what states realigned in the elections between 1960 and 1980?

  coastal states - went blue
• why did coastal states realign between 1960 and 1980?

  lots of minority groups in the area and people felt that the Republicans moved away from their anti-slavery past