CHICAGO — Hari Sevugan, Principal at 270 Strategies and former senior spokesman for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, joined MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes this evening to address 2016 electoral math and the specific advantages it presents for the Democratic Party.
Sevugan on previous and current electoral maps:
“If you’re looking at the states that you think you have in your pocket, in the last six elections, there have been 19 states that have been voted Democratic. And you start as a Democrat with 242 electoral votes. That was the same case in 2008, when we were looking at the map – we were pretty close, we had 28 states to go to get there. There were a couple states that were very close in 2008. Iowa was 10,000 votes, the raw vote difference. New Mexico was 588 raw votes. So we were targeting those states right away. Just with those states, you get very, very close. Then you pick up one or two other states. What I see in the new map in 2016, consolidation of those 19 states, and, actually, we’ve consolidated a couple states we’ve picked up in 2008, Colorado and Virginia, where we’re not even advertising anymore.”
Sevugan on Hillary Clinton’s advantages:
“The interesting thing here is that the Democratic campaign and Hillary Clinton are going on offense; we’re expanding beyond those 19. We’re looking at Georgia, now, and Arizona. I don’t think South Carolina and Texas are necessarily going to come into play, but in Georgia, in three out of the last four polls, Hillary’s either tied or in the lead.”
