ELECTION/ELECTORAL COLLEGE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “When President Barack Obama launched his 2012 reelection campaign, he did it with back-to-back rallies in a pair of logical places: Virginia and Ohio. The two essential swing states, with 31 electoral votes between them, were vital to Obama’s chances of winning a second term. Ohio, a traditional Midwestern bellwether, epitomized the old electoral map, from the now-distant era when presidential elections featured dozens of contested states and candidates sought to campaign in all of them. Virginia, a Southern state that for decades had voted Republican for president until Obama broke the streak in 2008, represented a new map, one in which rapid demographic change created new opportunities for Democrats. Together, they were emblematic of the Electoral College map Obama and his diverse coalition rewired in 2008 to win the White House.”
–Charlie Mahtesian, “How Trump Rewired the Electoral Map,” Politico, February 7, 2020 10:36 am