Columbus Sherry
 | |
| Era | The Nineties |
|---|---|
| Age | 38-50 |
| Home | Columbus, OH |
| Demographic | suburban white, divorced, single earner |
| Lean | Lean Democrat |
| Race | white |
| Successor | Dayton Tammy |
Sherry is a divorced office manager in suburban Columbus, Ohio, raising two teenagers on one salary and irregular child support. She leans Democratic mainly because of the economy, is sceptical of the rest of politics, and is never certain to vote.
Who they stand for
Sherry stands for the divorced and single-earner households of Midwestern suburbs, the women whose votes produced the 1990s gender gap in American politics. Women gave Bill Clinton his margin of victory in 1996, voting for him 54 per cent to Bob Dole's 38 per cent, and it was women like Sherry, working, unmarried and financially insecure rather than poor, who moved toward the Democrats. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the child tax credit introduced in 1997, and the expanded earned income tax credit were policies she felt directly in her pay packet. The Lewinsky affair cost Clinton nothing with her, because she had never believed him to be a particularly moral man. Rising employer health insurance premiums were her constant complaint. She is torn on abortion and never votes on the basis of it, and neither does her successor, Dayton Tammy. Plain Jane, a later successor in 2022, does vote on abortion, because the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision put the issue on her ballot. Ohio's voting pattern follows Sherry's own. The state voted for Clinton twice, returned to the Republicans with George W. Bush in 2000, and its swing decided the next two presidential elections.
Playing to them
Sherry is won by attention to her household budget and lost by being lectured. A president who keeps the economy strong, extends family leave, raises the child tax credit, pressures employers over health coverage, and pursues fathers who fail to pay child support, wins her support; she wants the government to talk specifically about childcare and college costs. She does not forgive being lectured about her personal finances, and she stays home on election day when a president spends the year focused on foreign policy, impeachment, or anyone else's marriage rather than her own concerns. Her turnout is the real prize. A president has not truly won Sherry until she has actually bothered to vote.
The cost of winning Sherry's support is low. Country Club Chip and Dot-Com Drew object to the employer mandates this requires. Bergen Vinny objects to any tax increase that pays for the child tax credit. Plano Kimberly objects to a president who treats a single mother's household as normal rather than as a moral failing. Levittown Maureen, Baltimore Kiana and Dunwoody Amanda come along with Sherry's wins at no cost.
Where they live
The five states where Columbus Sherry makes up the largest share of the electorate in the nineties:
- West Virginia
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Maine
- Ohio
Lineage
Columbus Sherry → Dayton Tammy → Plain Jane
Ordinary working women who vote on the health premium, the rent and whichever candidate seems less exhausting. One thing changes in thirty years. Sherry and Tammy are torn on abortion and never vote on it. Jane votes on it, because the Dobbs decision put it on her ballot.