the presence of the vowels
If only states that began with vowels counted…
Trump would have really, really cleaned up.
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah. Meanwhile all Clinton has is Indiana and Oreon.
It’s an electoral firewall with the vowel states tat the Clinton camp could not overcome.
I don’t know what the Democrats need to do to break through this front. Perhaps propose some vowel pandering program? I know, for instance, that Obama carried the Rust Belt states that swung over Trump’s way with the “GE Bail-out” and by dent of the Rich Guy he was running against was not as crass and so “like them” as the rich guy Clinton had to run against.
Perhaps the answer lies in introducing the word “New” into the states. New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico — Clinton swept the “New States”. Think about it, some enterprising Democratic state legislator in one of those states. You could sell it as a way to reinvigorate the economy.