Am I wrong to think that higher turnout automatically favors dem? like Kamala has much higher "turnout upside" than trump?
is there any scenario where high turnout is better for Repubs?
4 years can have impact for the next 50
Assuming high turnout automatically favors Democrats overlooks how the coalitions are forming.
- College (and plus) educated voters used to be a reliable Republican voting base. That is no longer the case, in fact, these individuals are now becoming reliable Democratic voters.
Race is becoming a less accurate predictor of how someone will vote and the more accurate predictors are becoming:
- Such voter's level of education
- How close such voter lives to the center of a city.
Part of why Dems did so well in 2022 is because the Party is now absorbing higher educated voters, who are also higher propensity voters and tend to vote in midterms. The plus side is, if the coalitions continue changing as they have been, Dems should do better in midterms (and similar low turnout elections) than they have been doing because they have the more high propensity voters.
However, the downside is that higher turnout elections will not necessarily be in the Dem's favor. We can no longer assume that high turnout elections tend to benefit Democrats because that may include lower propensity voters, who are being absorbed in to the Republican base, and are voting and casting votes for Republicans.