White Voters Helped Re-elect Obama

Much has been made of President Obama's large electoral majorities among minority groups in the days since the election. About 93% of African-Americans, 71% of Hispanics, and 73% of Asians gave their votes to the president, and they were integral in helping him get a second term. But we must not fall into the trap of believing this was a minorities vs. whites election, and minorities won. That simply would not be true. Whites made up 72% of the electorate in 2012, so if it had been just whites versus minorities, the president would have lost. Consider the following facts:

* About 56% of Obama's support came from white voters.

* About 40% of all white voters voted for President Obama.

* About 35% of white men voted for President Obama.

* President Obama received a significantly larger portion of the white vote than Romney received of the minority vote (Romney did not achieve even 30% of the vote of any minority group).

Now I am not trying to minimize the importance of the large margins of minority votes in helping to re-elect President Obama. It was extremely important. I am only saying that millions of white voters also voted for the president. It took a coalition of many races, ethnicities, ages, and sexes to re-elect President Obama -- and white voters were a significant part of that multi-group coalition. Millions of whites joined millions of minorities in Obama's "big tent" coalition, and that's a good sign for the future of this nation.