You don't want to be in a position of having to make the Sun Belt work [ this year ], you want to be in a position of having a lot more degrees of freedom than that. That's the beauty of Biden in this election.

Ruy Teixeira

It's another overlay to the conclusion that there are some parts of the white non-college population that are open to Democrats and can be moved a few points in your direction.

The chink in the armor [ for Republicans ], such as it is, there is a conflict between these [ blue-collar and rural ] voters' views of the rich and powerful in general and their views of entitlement programs and the way Republicans really do approach policy, if [ Democrats ] can convince more people that it's a really top priority to help you and your community, they would look the other way on some of their cultural conservative views. But until and unless you can make that case in a way that is convincing to a lot of these people, I don't think they are going to change.

The fact is that a lot of these white non-college voters who are living in dense areas are living in areas that are working, where economic mobility is feasible, and that takes the edge off of their cultural conservatism.

In Texas and Georgia, North Carolina, the White non-college margins are like a mountain, that's something you always have to take into account.

The idea that expanding the map comes down to high mobilization of the constituencies that give you the most support doesn't necessarily follow, you can do the same things by reducing your deficits or becoming competitive among groups where you had been doing quite poorly.

It was never clear to me that the way you expand the map was by enormous turnout among young people, other moving parts were just as important, if not more important.