ECONOMY/ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “With just days to go before the midterm elections, President Trump is making an economic appeal to well-off suburban voters: Elect Republicans, the president warns in tweets and a new national ad, or kiss the good economic times goodbye. That appears to be the right audience for a closing pitch, but it may not pay off as the president hopes. The competitive districts that will decide control of the House are richer and more economically vibrant than the country as a whole. But there is little evidence that the thriving economies in those districts are buoying Republican candidates enough to guarantee victories against well-funded Democratic challengers. The concentration of battlegrounds in prosperous areas could have important policy implications for the next Congress, with swing-district representatives more concerned with preserving their region’s own good fortunes than with helping large parts of the country that continue to lag economically.”
–Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman, “Parts of America Are Still Struggling Economically. They Don’t Matter Much in the Midterms.,” The New York Times online, October 30, 2018