Trump’s Contradictory Coalition Roils Elections in Virginia, Georgia

Lee Drutman's Voter Study Group research was highlighted in a Washington Post article about how Trump has changed the GOP: 

Trump assembled and held this coalition together in the presidential election, but as the Virginia gubernatorial primary showed, the conflict between the ardent Trump supporters and other Republicans continues. Lee Drutman of the think tank New America writes of the tension in another of the reports from the Democracy Fund study group: “The nativist populism on which Donald Trump campaigned is at odds with much of what Republicans have traditionally embodied.”

Meanwhile, Trump is affecting Democrats, as well. The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is a common theme these days, and there is something to the friction between the progressive wing of the party, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and the more moderate wing. But Democrats appear less divided on issues than Republicans, and some of those differences are overshadowed by the unity that Trump’s presidency provides to the opposition party.