…the data she’s marshalling don’t really say what she thinks they do.

Building on some data put together by Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Axios produced a figure claiming to demonstrate that Democratics represent wealthier congressional districts. While I agree with Kaptur on policy* (I’m still waiting for that federal $15/hour minimum wage–because I’m in the slow leftist group), when you actually look at the data, they don’t really support certainly what Axios claims for several reasons.

What the analysis ignores is that the high-income congressional districts are disproportionately found in high-income (and high expense) states, such as California and the coastal Pacific districts, along with parts of the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic. But if you look within many individual states, the Democratic districts often have lower average incomes** than the Republican districts. Here, for instance are the average incomes for Alabama in its seven districts:

$69,221
$68,269
$52,278
$50,597
$50,227
$49,465
$41,736

Guess which one is the sole Democratic district? Yup, the one with $41,736. Let’s look at swing state Arizona:

$97,042 Republican
$86,002 Republican
$73,095 Republican
$70,204 Democratic
$68,146 Republican
$67,407 Republican
$58,671 Republican
$56,271 Democratic
$50,668 Democratic

Here’s Michigan with its seven Democrats and six Republicans:

$85,891 Democratic
$83,176 Democratic
$73,460 Republican
$70,080 Democratic
$67,276 Democratic
$67,019 Republican
$65,294 Republican
$61,969 Republican
$59,683 Republican
$55,941 Republican
$53,588 Democratic
$51,973 Democratic
$44,238 Democratic

Incidentally, here’s New York:

$121,979 Republican
$120,031 Republican
$119,185 Republican (this one is George Santos’ district…)
$116,070 Democratic
$114,511 Republican
$109,607 Republican
$96,948 Democratic
$95,778 Democratic
$84,999 Democratic
$79,594 Democratic
$77,230 Democratic
$76,805 Republican
$73,628 Democratic
$70,187 Democratic
$65,695 Democratic
$64,880 Republican
$64,128 Republican
$63,306 Democratic
$63,211 Republican
$62,999 Republican
$61,944 Republican
$56,989 Democratic
$56,129 Democratic
$55,121 Democratic
$45,683 Democratic
$40,319 Democratic

Not all states are like this: North Carolina’s Democratic districts, on the whole, are wealthier than Republican districts, though the poorest district is Democratic.

While I would like to see more focus on economic issues, I think Kaptur should just point out that, for candidates like herself, who are trying to win in states that increasingly are becoming White Christian nationalist ‘evangelized’ states, they need some economic boodle to bring home. Nothing wrong with that (ALL UR BOODLE ARE BELONG TO ME!), but I don’t think we need to torture data to make the point.

*While I think economic issues are important, parts of the left, construed somewhat broadly, need to accept that the Great Worker Uprising simply hasn’t happened and realize that a coalition–not as a junior partner–with the ‘cultural’ left is critical for electoral success, especially in off-year elections.

**Having a major sports team whose members largely reside in one congressional district will be a massive boost in average income. Needless to say, a thriving FIRE sector also helps.