Dayton Tammy
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 31-38 |
| Home | Dayton, OH |
| Demographic | white, divorced, medical billing, Ohio |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Columbus Sherry |
| Successor | Plain Jane |
Tammy is a divorced medical-billing clerk at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, and she is a swing voter without fixed political views. She decides her vote based on her health insurance premium, her children, and which candidate seems least likely to panic in a crisis.
Who they stand for
White working women without college degrees in Ohio decide the 2004 presidential election. George W. Bush carries the state by about 118,000 votes, with a marriage amendment on the same ballot, and Ohio's electoral votes give him the presidency. Their decade includes the collapse of the auto-parts economy that supports many of them indirectly. Delphi's bankruptcy in 2005 and the closure of General Motors' Moraine plant near Dayton in 2008 cause job losses, and this cuts off the child-support payments that some of these women depend on. Family health insurance premiums more than double between 2000 and 2010, and petrol reaches four dollars a gallon in the summer of 2008. These same women vote for Bush in 2004 because he seems steady, and they vote for Barack Obama in 2008 because of the economy.
Nothing in her politics changes across the three generations of this line. Sherry and Tammy are torn on abortion and never vote on it. Jane does vote on abortion, because the Dobbs decision puts it on her ballot.
Playing to them
Tammy responds well to a cheaper insurance premium, the child tax credit, overtime pay, petrol she can afford, and a president who sounds steady and speaks plainly. She has no ideology to flatter, and the culture war bores her regardless of which side makes the argument. A campaign focused on abortion or marriage wastes its effort on her, whether the campaign supports or opposes those causes, and a lecture on any subject costs a candidate her support.
She does not forgive a president who looks rattled, a war that continues without an explanation she can follow, benefits that seem to reward people who could work instead, or a politician who evades a plain question. A small, concrete benefit is often enough to win her vote, but she abandons a candidate just as quickly if that candidate disappoints her, and she moves together with NASCAR Doug and Security Mom Donna. Winning her support has costs elsewhere. A health plan generous enough to cut her premium looks like government-run medicine to Abilene Ray and Megachurch Heather, and the taxes needed to pay for it cost the support of Country Club Whit and Startup Seth.
Where they live
The five states where Dayton Tammy makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Ohio
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Kansas
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.