Country Club Craig
 | |
| Era | The Modern Era |
|---|---|
| Age | 50-65 |
| Home | Greenwich, CT |
| Demographic | wealthy, white, corporate Republican |
| Lean | Lean Republican |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Country Club Whit |
Craig is a finance executive in his fifties in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is a Wall Street Republican who wants low taxes and free trade, and he votes for his party's populist nominees only with visible reluctance.
Who they stand for
Craig stands for the affluent, college-educated Republicans of the Northeastern suburbs, the wing of the party that drifted away from it during the Trump years without joining the Democrats. Greenwich voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 for the first time since 1964, and voted for Biden by a wide margin in 2020, yet the town still elects Republicans to local office. The 2017 tax cut kept Craig loyal to the party. He wanted its lower corporate tax rate, although he did not want its new cap on deductions for state and local taxes. The tariffs imposed in 2018, and the much larger tariffs imposed in 2025, pushed him away from the party, because his wing of the Republican Party had opposed tariffs since the Reagan era.
Craig is part of a line of personas in which the voter's outlook stays the same while the Republican Party changes around him. Country Club Chip, an earlier persona, lost his party to Pat Buchanan's wing. Country Club Whit, a later persona, lost it to concern over the deficit and to the Christian right. Craig has lost the party to Trump, and he still votes for it anyway.
Playing to them
Craig responds well to a tax cut, a deregulation order, a trade agreement signed, a stock market left alone, and a president who behaves in a way Craig can defend to his friends at the club. He will not forgive a tariff, an estate or wealth tax, a rise in the capital-gains tax rate, or inflation that he blames on government spending, and he is the most sensitive member of the cast to a president's personal manner and conduct. A Democratic president cannot win Craig's vote, but can win his passive acceptance through free trade and a stable Treasury Department.
A president who wins Craig's support on trade loses the support of Rust Belt Rick, Union Jack, Detroit Denise and Appalachian Amber, all four of whom experience a trade deal as a closed factory. A president who wins his support on deregulation loses the support of Bay Area Priya and Woodstock Allen. Military Mike shares Craig's preference for order, and Beltway Barbara shares his preference for competence, so a sober, institutional presidency from either party can keep all three of them reasonably satisfied.
Where they live
The five states where Country Club Craig makes up the largest share of the electorate in the modern era:
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- New York
- Florida
- New Hampshire
Lineage
Country Club Chip → Country Club Whit → Country Club Craig
The one line where the man does not change and the party does. In every decade he is fiscally conservative, for free trade, indifferent to social issues, and embarrassed by the populists and the religious right. Chip's wing of the party loses to Buchanan. Whit's has Bush and loses him over the deficit and the Christian right. Craig's has Trump and votes for him reluctantly. The same reluctant Republican vote three times.