It’s pretty clear that the Midwest largely delivered the presidency to Donald Trump, as the candidate relied on big wins in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio to pull out his historic victory.
As this post goes live, we’re still not sure who won Michigan, though it seems that Trump will take that key Midwest state, too.
So what happened? Many of the pundits are saying that voters in key Midwest states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan are worried about the loss of manufacturing jobs. They voted for Trump in the hope that he will stem this loss.
What’s interesting about this is that the commercial real estate industry in those Midwest states that Hilary Clinton did lose is on the rise. The industrial market is soaring in states such as Indiana, Wisconsin and Ohio. Retail is solid in these states, and even the struggling office market is showing signs of life, according to all the reports we receive from companies like Marcus & Millichap, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers International.
But even as unemployment numbers fall, industrial buildings rise and office vacancies stabilize, it still feels for many — maybe even most — that the country’s economy is stalled, and that too many good jobs are gone, maybe forever. And that’s particularly true in the Midwest, much of which still relies so heavily on manufacturing.
So if you’re stunned by Trump’s win, maybe you shouldn’t be. Sure, the vast majority of polls predicted a victory by Clinton. But when you take a closer look at jobs and the economy — the most important issues for so many voters — maybe Trump’s win isn’t so surprising.
