“One operating theory is there is this group of voters who are turned on and activated by Trump," Murphy told me. “They are not generally political participants. They are not big believers in institutions.” “They are not as willing to participate in polls and talk to strangers about their opinions,” Murphy continued, suggesting this might be why those voters proved hard for pollsters to reach. One possibility that Democrats are exploring, Murphy said, is that these latter voters might be driven by “a larger sense of social distrust. Trump’s rhetoric and willingness to take on institutions spoke to the anger at the establishment they were feeling.” This dovetails with a suggestion from polling analyst Steven Shepard, that Trump might have exacerbated this effect with his attacks on polls as deliberately rigged against Trump and the media as out to get him. Still, Murphy also cautioned that this shouldn’t be looked at just in racial terms. She noted that Trump did better among non-college voters across the racial spectrum, and said Democrats need to look hard at why they missed those voters as well.