ASHINGTON — Before Election Day 2018, Republicans held 13 of the 40 congressional districts with the highest share of adults over 25 with a college degree.
After the midterms, however, that’s now down to just four. And if Rep. Mimi Walters in California ultimately loses her still-uncalled re-election race, as expected, it’ll be just three Republicans remaining. (Those three are Van Taylor, who succeeded Rep. Sam Johnson in Texas; Ann Wagner in Missouri; and Susan Brooks in Indiana.)
That surge of Democratic enthusiasm from college-educated voters was captured in the exit polls, too. Overall, college graduates broke for Democrats in the midterms by 20 percentage points, while those with no college degree were equally split. Among only white college graduates, Democrats had an advantage of 8 percentage points. And among just female while college graduates, it was 20 points.
But that college divide isn’t just about midterm races in highly educated districts. We saw a similar divide in 2016, when President Donald Trump won all but three states (Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico) where the share of college graduates is BELOW the national average of 32 percent, while Clinton won all but three states (Utah, Kansas and Montana) where the share is ABOVE the national average. (It’s no coincidence that Republicans experienced midterm setbacks in all three of those states — a possible loss by Mia Love in UT-4; the GOP defeats in KS-GOV and KS-3; and Jon Tester’s re-election in Montana.)
