Today, Behind the Numbers shows the sizable "education gap" in Democratic voting patterns.
In Post-ABC national polling, Clinton consistently scored better among voters without college degrees than among those with more education, and the pattern has held firm in primaries across the country. In fact, education has been a key divider among white voters in a contest marked by an evident racial divide.
In each of the states where the Post subscribed to exit polls (and voters were asked about their level of education), Clinton did better among non-college than college-educated white voters. She also outpaced Obama among non-college whites in all 14 of these states, but beat him by more than a single percentage point among college graduates in only five.
In Virginia, where 52 percent of white voters opted for Obama, the Illinois senator did 18 percentage points better than Clinton among those with college degrees, but lost by 15 points among those less formal education.
Dividing white voters by income shows a similar pattern in Virginia and elsewhere, pointing to Clinton's much-discussed advantage among "downscale" voters. For more, see the thread on pollster.com.
We'll take a deeper look at the reasons for these differences in a future Behind the Numbers post, but digging further into the Virginia data, one difference jumped out. While about half of whites regardless of education level said the nation is "definitely" ready for a woman president, just a third of whites without college degrees were that sure the country is prepared for a black president and they were almost twice as likely as college educated whites to say the nation is not ready for an African American chief executive.
White non-college%Total Clinton Obama Clin.-Ob. New Hampshire 44 44 35 9 South Carolina 23 38 16 22 Florida 35 56 15 41 Arizona 34 59 33 26 California 23 50 37 13 Georgia 16 64 35 29 Illinois 28 50 46 4 Massachusetts 32 68 29 39 Missouri 48 63 33 30 New Jersey 24 73 24 49 New York 23 65 31 34 Tennessee 44 76 17 59 Maryland 16 61 32 29 Virginia 23 57 42 15White college grad or more
%Total Clinton Obama Clin.-Ob. New Hampshire 51 35 37 -2 South Carolina 21 33 32 1 Florida 32 51 33 18 Arizona 35 46 45 1 California 29 42 51 -9 Georgia 27 48 48 0 Illinois 29 32 67 -35 Massachusetts 53 52 46 6 Missouri 27 35 61 -26 New Jersey 35 60 38 22 New York 48 57 40 17 Tennessee 23 51 42 9 Maryland 37 48 47 1 Virginia 39 40 58 -18
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