Levittown Maureen
 | |
| Era | The Nineties |
|---|---|
| Age | 38-52 |
| Home | Levittown, PA |
| Demographic | suburban white Catholic, part-time work, mother |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Successor | Security Mom Donna |
A part-time receptionist at a Catholic parish in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with three children and a husband who works in the building trades. She pays little attention to politics, decides late, but votes in every election, and voters like her often decide close elections.
Who they stand for
The white Catholic suburbs of Philadelphia were Reagan Democrat territory in the 1980s. They swung to Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and narrowly to Gore in 2000, and they made Pennsylvania a state that both parties had to contest. Maureen is the soccer mom of the 1996 campaign. Proposals such as school uniforms, the V-chip for televisions and family leave were designed to appeal to voters like her. She is also the Catholic vote, which went to Clinton twice and then split almost evenly between Gore and Bush. The Lewinsky affair shows her reactions best. She disapproved of Clinton as a man but approved of his performance in the job, and the Democrats gained seats in the House in 1998.
Bergen Vinny, across the Delaware River in New Jersey, is her male counterpart. He votes on what a policy costs him, while she votes on the person proposing it. Columbus Sherry is what Maureen would be without a second income in the household. Her successors are Security Mom Donna in the 2000s, who chooses a side after the attacks of 11 September 2001, and Suburban Sarah in the modern era, who never does.
Playing to them
She supports decency, calm, competence, school safety and family leave. She wants a president who sounds like a responsible parent instead of someone arguing for one political side. She opposes shouting, negative campaigning, a scandal reported at the dinner hour, and any tax rise she notices. She counts a fight between the president and Congress against the president even when he wins it. She is won late in a campaign and lost quickly, because she decides on impression. That is why every campaign chases her, and why holding her support depends on consistent conduct rather than on policy.
Nothing a president does to win her directly costs another voter. A president can still lose her, however, through actions taken to win other voters. The loud, assertive moves that win Madison Steph or Plano Kimberly lose Maureen. So does any move on abortion in either direction, which she treats as arguing. Bergen Vinny is won by the same quiet conduct combined with a lower property tax bill. Dunwoody Amanda forgave Clinton for the Lewinsky affair. Maureen did not forgive him for it.
Where they live
The five states where Levittown Maureen makes up the largest share of the electorate in the nineties:
- New Hampshire
- Pennsylvania
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Connecticut
Lineage
Levittown Maureen → Security Mom Donna → Suburban Sarah
Suburban swing women who vote on competence and character, except in one decade. Donna, after 9/11, votes on national security because her husband is a police officer who worked at Ground Zero, and turns back when the government neglects the sick responders. Maureen before her and Sarah after her have no side. Sarah voted Obama, then Trump, then Biden. Donna is the only one of the three who picked a side, and she picked it for her family's safety, not for an ideology.