What Are the New Battleground States? (Polls & Video)

 Can Hillary Clinton win the Republican strongholds Arizona and Georgia? At the moment, thanks to Donald J. Trump’s self-destructive tendencies and both states’ growing populations of professionals and nonwhites, it’s possible.

The 2016 election is poised to be the most polarized presidential election in our lifetime, deeply split along racial, gender, generational and educational lines. The outcome could leave the balance of power in Washington virtually unchanged and yet simultaneously heighten both parties’ distrust of each other to the level of hysteria.

It also promises to reorder the electoral map in powerful ways. In 1996, Bill Clinton carried Iowa, Missouri and Ohio on his way to re-election, while losing Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. Twenty years later, Hillary Clinton’s path to 270 electoral votes is more likely to do the opposite.

The matchup between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump is accelerating trends that were expected to unfold gradually but have, in 2016, emerged to jolt the electoral map. The parties are realigning along an axis primarily of educational achievement, but also of race. Democrats have been on the upswing with minorities, college-educated whites and younger voters, while Republicans are increasingly reliant on older whites, whites without a degree, or both.