America is Moving to the Left

It's hard to imagine that in a country run by Donald Trump, we're moving to the left. As a matter of fact, Trump is one of the most far right presidents we've ever had. Believe it or not, this is actually playing into the country's leftward motion. As people who were previously moderate see the negative impacts of far-right politics, their ideologies move leftward. Add that to the fact that younger people tend to be very progressive, inspired by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and you get a political world moving toward the left.

This can be seen in a state like Arizona that has steadily voted for Republicans on all levels of the government and is now transitioning toward the Democratic Party. Joe Biden is expected to carry the state in November and Arizona's senate race is expected to go in favor of the Democrats as well. This will give them two Democratic senators, as the Democrats also won Arizona's senate race in 2018.

Another state moving leftward is the state of Georgia. The state hasn't voted in favor of a Democrat on a presidential level since the election of 1976 when Jimmy Carter swept the south. Georgia is currently considered a tossup in the 2020 election. This means Biden could become the first Democrat in almost 50 years to carry the state. While both senate races are expected to go Republican, this could change in upcoming elections.

The biggest, and arguably most surprising, state we're expecting to see move to the Democratic Party in the near future is Texas. While a Biden victory is unlikely in this upcoming election, it's not impossible. If you look at elections in recent history, the Republican margin of victory has slowly been shrinking. In 2016, Donald Trump, while carrying the state, underperformed. His margin of victory was smaller than what polls were predicting and smaller than that of previous candidates. It's likely that we'll see an even smaller margin of victory for the president in 2020.

Most of these changes can be attributed to population growth. The cities of Phoenix, Atlanta, and Houston are some of the fastest growing cities in the country. The surge in youth population in addition to higher voter turnout in communities of color is leading to the shift in political leaning. This looks very good for the Democratic Party as it would make winning the presidency much easier to have Arizona, Georgia, and Texas in their arsenal of states. Currently, Arizona is the only state expected to vote in favor of Joe Biden in this upcoming election, however, if trends continue, we could very well see all of these states and more start swinging in favor of Democrats in the near future.