President Trump made immigration the top reason to vote against Democrats among all off-year voters and succeeded in making the Democrats’ support of “open borders and sanctuary cities” the top reason to oppose them in every faction of the GOP, including the Moderates. That ugly campaign successfully raised hostility to immigrants and foreignness and pushed up President Trump’s “strong approval” with all types of Republicans. But critically, the divisive ultra-nationalist campaign was a step too far for some in the GOP. The 2018 campaign pushed some Republicans not to vote or to vote for Democrats, leaving the Republican Party more fractured and polarized. We know this because of the Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices. Women Vote Action Fund web-panel in 12 contested battleground states which interviewed the same Republican voters before and after the election, including those GOP who pushed back hard against the Tea Party that has dominated the party for a decade.
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