RichmondPhilsFan wrote:This. It's the same reason the polls weren't oversampling Democrats, as we were told by Fox News. The problem is that conservatives were identifying as Independents out of frustration with the Republican Party but were still going to vote Republican b/c there was no other realistic option.
It does seem that the answer to "What went wrong for Republicans?" is a simple one: presented with the possibility that the electorate was getting younger, more secular, and less white, they tried their damndest to MAKE it be what they wanted it to be - older and whiter (through ID laws, etc.), instead of trying to broaden their appeal to some of these new demographics. I don't want to go too apocalyptic, because things change (and fast) quite often, but it seems to me that this was potentially a MAJOR strategic mistake, because the Republicans have risked alienating the fastest-growing segments of the population. If they have not yet irrevocably done so, they should consider changing their tune for 2016 (I think the off-year elections will continue to afford them the possibility of appealing to a smaller, older, whiter electorate, because that is likely what they are going to face), because very time they opt for trying to make the square peg fit the round hole, they take a bigger risk that they are permanently alienating a bigger and bigger swathe of the electorate.
In particular, I was surprised to learn that Republicans had lost among Asian voters by so much this time around; I would think that this would be a place where they could make up significant ground, and fast (I think the damage they've done to themselves with respect to Latinos will take longer to turn around).
