Nearly 20,000 registered Democrats in Massachusetts are abandoning the party to register either as a Republican or unaffiliated to be eligible to vote in today's primary. Massachusetts is a "semi-open" primary state, meaning a person must be registered as either a Republican or as "unaffiliated" to vote in the Republican primary. (Or as a Democrat or unaffiliated to vote in the Democratic primary.) This is a "significant" number as Massachusetts is a state dominated by Democrats. The running theory is that these voters are joining up with the Republicans to vote for Donald Trump.
Secretary of State William Galvin said more than 16,300 Democrats have shed their party affiliation and become independent voters since Jan. 1, while nearly 3,500 more shifted to the MassGOP ahead of tomorrow’s “Super Tuesday” presidential primary.
Galvin called both “significant” changes that dwarf similar shifts ahead of other primary votes, including in 2000, when some Democrats flocked from the party in order to cast a vote for Sen. John McCain in the GOP primary.
The primary reason? Galvin said his “guess” is simple: “The Trump phenomenon,” a reference to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, who polls show enjoying a massive lead over rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others among Massachusetts Republican voters.
Curious. A few days back, there was a viral video of a Bernie Sanders' phone bank worker who got very emotional over calling Trump supporters in the "deep south" for Super Tuesday. It's (very) likely that as a Sanders supporter, the only people on her list were registered Democrats. The fact that she encountered any Trump supporters who are registered Democrats should have been the story, not the fact that they were rude to her over the phone.
Trump clearly is appealing to a more blue-collar, non-traditional base. It'll be quite interesting to see how this plays out in today's elections.