Back to today’s briefing

Story perspectives

Affluent White Voters Turn Democratic, Low-Income Shift Republican

5/17/2026

50 10 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

Researchers Karyn Vilbig and Paula England found that highly educated white-collar White voters shifted toward Democrats from 1980 to 2020.
Analyzing data on 27,795 White voters, they saw non-high-school support drop from 49 % in 2012 to 26 % in 2020, while white-collar support rose from 32 % to 54 %.
They concluded the partisan gap is driven by affluent professionals moving left and lower-status voters moving right after 2012.

1 of 1

Story summary

Researchers Karyn Vilbig and Paula England found that highly educated white-collar White voters shifted toward Democrats from 1980 to 2020.
Analyzing data on 27,795 White voters, they saw non-high-school support drop from 49 % in 2012 to 26 % in 2020, while white-collar support rose from 32 % to 54 %.
They concluded the partisan gap is driven by affluent professionals moving left and lower-status voters moving right after 2012.