The imbalance between competitive and battleground states is somewhat similar to a regionalism issue, at least in a mathematical sense: Mrs. Clinton won the “blue states” by a wider margin than Mr. Trump won the “red states.” The rest of the country — the battlegrounds — voted Republican, and so did the Electoral College.
But this isn’t a regionalism issue. The “solid red” and “solid blue” states where Mr. Trump failed to make gains include a clear majority of the country’s Electoral College votes, population and actual votes. The regional anomaly was the Midwest, and it just so happens that in a winner-take-all system Mr. Trump’s strength in the Midwestern battleground states yielded a lot of Electoral College votes.
There’s a real demographic reason for it: Most of the traditional battleground states are much whiter, less educated and particularly less Hispanic than the rest of the country.
But the demographics alone don’t quite do justice to Mr. Trump’s victory in the Electoral College. In the end, he won the battleground states by just a one-point margin — but claimed three-fourths of their Electoral College votes.
He won four of the five closest states, winning 75 of 79 votes at stake.
There has never been a close election in the United States in which one candidate has claimed such a resounding electoral vote margin out of the closest states.
For lack of a better word: Mr. Trump had some very good luck.
