“It’s very clear from the American Jewish groups that Donald Trump is once again trying to divide the country using religion as a vehicle to advance his own interests …,” said University of Mary Washington Professor of Political Science Stephen Farnsworth. “I don’t know that a lot of Jewish Americans are going to take Donald Trump’s advice all that seriously. They certainly didn’t support him in 2016. About four-to-one, Jewish Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.”
Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, said suburban Republicans like Hugo and Miyares are walking a fine line on volatile issues like gun control as Democrats make inroads in those communities.
Professor Stephen Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington said: “There are two winners in this story. The congresswoman who wants to demonstrate that Israel is less of a democracy than it purports to be and the president who wants to make sure that people on the Democratic side come to the defense of the Democratic congresswomen who are so controversial. Donald Trump has a very, very good sense of how to build up outrage and anger in America and how to convert that to his political advantage. This is another example of that.”
“Chesterfield has changed a lot irrespective of the new lines,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a University of Mary Washington political scientist. “Generally speaking, the second wave of suburban residential settlement isn’t as conservative as the people who moved out of the city a generation or two ago. People are moving to Chesterfield to be closer to work. They’re moving into apartments in greater numbers rather than single-family homes. . . . So these are people who aren’t reflexively Republican.”
“By focusing on the issues that generate a strong emotional response, it maximizes the chances they’re re-elected,” Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, said.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, told WAMU that the new voter registrations in that state likely favor Democrats. “Younger people vote 60-40 for Democrats, and groups moving to Virginia tend to be less Republican than those already here,” Farnsworth told the NPR affiliate.
