There’s no doubt that success in rural and working-class white America was critical to Trump’s victory. However, far less attention has been spent on suburban America, whose college-educated white voters (especially white women) were supposed to provide Clinton a bulwark to big losses among rural voters.
Instead, the suburbs didn’t deliver for Clinton — Romney carried them by two points, and Trump by five. GOP-leaning suburban voters may have been wary of Trump’s temperament, but they were willing to take a chance with him and the change he promised, rather than break party ranks and support a Democrat.
– Amy Walter, National Editor, The Cook Political Report