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Clinton Targets College-Educated Whites in Bid for Swing States

Long a Republican mainstay, white college graduates are trending Democratic in 2016.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on June 22, 2016, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on June 22, 2016, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Photographer: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton’s path to the White House relies on reassembling the winning Obama coalition of minority voters and women, but her campaign is vying for a demographic long out of reach for Democrats—college-educated whites—that could reshape the map of U.S. swing states this year.

For decades, white voters with at least a bachelor’s degree have favored the Republican nominee over the Democrat in U.S. presidential elections, although not by as much as working-class whites.