Wait–White Voters Matter? WTF?!?

I know, I was as surprised as anyone. But here’s Sean Trende AND Ruy Teixeira making very similar cases as to the importance (dominance?) of white voters.

Every once in a while, when I’m talking with someone about the changing demographics of American elections, I ask them what percentage of the electorate they think is non-Hispanic white. The answers I get are nearly always in line with Gallup’s awesome findings about Americans’ perceptions of the gay population:

In surveys conducted in 2002 and 2011, pollsters at Gallup found that members of the American public massively overestimated how many people are gay or lesbian. In 2002, a quarter of those surveyed guessed upwards of a quarter of Americans were gay or lesbian (or “homosexual,” the third option given). By 2011, that misperception had only grown, with more than a third of those surveyed now guessing that more than 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian. Women and young adults were most likely to provide high estimates,approximating that 30 percent of the population is gay. Overall, “U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian,” Gallup found. Only 4 percent of all those surveyed in 2011 and about 8 percent of those surveyed in 2002 correctly guessed that fewer than 5 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian.