To Win Swing States, Kamala Harris Must Overcome the Diploma Divide

Vice President Kamala Harris has easily won over the well-educated progressives of the modern Democratic Party. The question is whether she can siphon enough non college-educated voters from Donald Trump in swing states to win election as president.

Politics in the 21st century has been defined by the Democratic Party's growing appeal amongst voters with college degrees while a Republican Party, once seen as representing the elite, has built support among working class voters who did not attend college.

"Education, while I think it is the fault line, it also is a proxy for the cultural divide in our country," Doug Sosnik, a senior advisor to former President Bill Clinton, told Newsweek. "The leadership of the Democratic Party is disproportionately Washington-based and disproportionately college educated, and they have a different set of priorities and issues than the rest of the country, and I think that has been a problem for Democrats across the country."

Of the 35 percent of Americans with a college degree, 61 percent voted for Biden in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, while 53 percent of those without a college degree favored for Trump.