美国国家公共电台 NPR What We Mean When We Talk About 'Suburban Women Voters'

 

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

In any political season, you'll hear some reference to suburban¹ women. In the past, they've been called soccer moms and security moms, among other things. And it's all code for a similar voting bloc². This year, with many key House races in the suburbs, they're once again major targets for campaigns. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has been looking into what this term really means, and she's with us now. Hey, Danielle.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE³: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: OK, so we've had this series of high-profile elections lately where the successful candidates - whether it's Democrat⁴ Conor Lamb in the Pennsylvania special election or Republican Karen Handel in last year's Georgia special election - specifically courted and targeted suburban women voters. What was it about them that made these campaigns focus their attention there?

KURTZLEBEN: What you have is a confluence⁵ of different demographic groups - white people, educated people, higher income people and women. These all tend to be pretty high-turnout groups. They're not the only high-turnout groups in America, but you have a lot of people in the suburbs who are at the intersection⁶ of all them. So if you're a politician or you're a political strategist, what you're thinking is, I want to be as efficient as I can be. These voters might be theoretically persuadable. They think they can swing them.

DETROW: So we both cover politics. Our desks are right next to each other in the newsroom.

KURTZLEBEN: True.

DETROW: And many times, we have talked about suburban voters. But you wrote on npr.org this week, when political reporters like you and I use that phrase - when political consultants⁷ use that phrase, we're not quite talking about exactly what we mean to be talking about. What did you mean by that?

KURTZLEBEN: Right. So I mean, you know this as well as I do. When you talk to a political strategist or a political campaign, they will talk to you about suburban voters in a pretty reductive way. So often, it's code for white, when really, you know, suburbs - that's not entirely⁸ the case.

Suburbs, for example, they're not super white anymore. But 2010 census⁹ data showed us that the share of suburbanites who are minorities - it's about the same as the country as a whole. Around 65 percent, give or take, of suburban residents were white. Aside from that, you have a significant amount of poverty in suburbs. So if you flatten¹⁰ this to just talk about rich, well-educated, often white people, you're missing out on a lot of other people and a lot of nuance¹¹.

DETROW: One of the big trends of the past few special elections has been a big shift toward the Democratic candidates. If this is a lasting¹² shift in this year's midterm elections, how big of a deal is that?

KURTZLEBEN: Right. And we should specify¹³ here that we're talking, once again, white, college-educated women have swung pretty hard towards Democrats¹⁴ in the last couple of decades. So the way that this shifts strategy - I was talking to a Republican strategist, and he was saying, you know, it's pretty simple. Is that, like, what we have to do is focus our energies more on non-college-educated white voters, which means, you know, focusing more on exurbs, the further out rings of suburbs, and also, you know, rural voters - rural white voters, that is. And that's what Republicans are doing.

DETROW: Looking back at some of the recent elections where candidates have targeted voters, what are some takeaways that we can infer from their success in doing that?

KURTZLEBEN: So I talked to the campaign manager for Ralph Northam. He is, as you know, the Democrat who won the Virginia governorship back - last November. What this strategist told me was that, you know, Ralph Northam's campaign focused really heavily on suburbs, but they had a sort of two-pronged strategy.

One of those strategies was to go after those white, affluent¹⁵, college-educated, theoretically persuadable suburban voters, but to go after more Democratic base voters, which is to say minority and younger voters. That's what they did, and they won the election.

DETROW: All right. NPR political reporter Danielle Kurtzleben, thank you very much.

KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.

1 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

2 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 confluence   

n.汇合，聚集

参考例句：

• They built the city at the confluence of two rivers.他们建造了城市的汇合两条河流。
• The whole DV movements actually was a confluence of several trends.整个当时的DV运动，实际上是几股潮流的同谋。

6 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

7 consultants   

顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生

参考例句：

• a firm of management consultants 管理咨询公司
• There're many consultants in hospital. 医院里有很多会诊医生。

8 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

9 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

10 flatten   

v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽

参考例句：

• We can flatten out a piece of metal by hammering it.我们可以用锤子把一块金属敲平。
• The wrinkled silk will flatten out if you iron it.发皱的丝绸可以用熨斗烫平。

11 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

12 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

13 specify   

vt.指定，详细说明

参考例句：

• We should specify a time and a place for the meeting.我们应指定会议的时间和地点。
• Please specify what you will do.请你详述一下你将做什么。

14 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。