Donald Trump’s chief strategist represented the group he most desperately needed to win.

The “Billy Bush Tape” was supposed to be the end for Donald Trump. Mainstream Republicans like Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz publicly unendorsed him. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan disinvited him from a GOP event in Wisconsin. Many pundits on both sides of the aisle declared that the race was over. Some even called for his replacement on the ticket.

In the wake of the “Pussygate” storm, Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway continued to insist that her candidate still had a viable path to victory. Conway understood the issues that resonated with the election’s most important demographic, her own.

Kellyanne Conway represented the exact type of voter that the Trump campaign needed to win. Conway is white, Catholic and a mother of four. She was raised by a working-class single mother in a New Jersey suburb less than 25 miles east of Philadelphia. Conway is college educated.

White women are the rust belt’s largest voting block. They make up between 40 and 45 percent of the electorate in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Catholics in the Midwest are of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European dissent. Most of them are not overtly religious, and few take public, prominent stands on social issues such as gay marriage, or transgenderism. However, the issue of abortion still resonates deeply, and even those who tentatively support Roe vs. Wade are still sympathetic to candidates who publicly express their revulsion at killing “unborn children.”

The Hillary Clinton campaign banked on women voting based on their revulsion to Donald Trump. Clinton surrogates countered the narrative of “The Shy Trump Voter” with a fantasy of their own, “The Secret Clinton Voter.” A Salon magazine article written just two weeks before the election describes a “Secret Hillary Club” of conservative women who would defy their “Trump loving husbands.”

In 2008, Barack Obama eviscerated John Mccain in a landslide electoral college victory. Obama ran on a platform of unity and economic reform. He capitalized on the economic uncertainty and unpopularity of the outgoing two-term Republican president, George W. Bush.

In 2008, Obama carried Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin (three states that had for Democratic presidents since the Reagan years) by double digits. He also flipped Indiana, and Ohio into the Democratic column. Obama won in the Midwest with strong performances among white women and white independents as a whole. Obama won the rustbelt because white voters were dissatisfied with the economy and craved political change.

In November 2016, many voters felt really crappy about the economy again. This was the source of the huge disconnect between the Clinton team and swing-state voters. The economy was doing better on paper. President Obama had high popularity ratings. Internal polling showed that Hillary was winning among voters who cared most about the economy.

The Midwest wasn’t feeling the effects of the national economic upturn. The economy wasn’t growing fast enough. People didn’t feel richer; they didn’t feel like they had more money in their pockets. Voters couldn’t name any of Hillary Clinton’s economic policies and had no substantial reason to believe she cared about them or could improve their lives.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Kellyanne Conway reined in her candidate. Donald Trump talked about the issues. The inflammatory statements and late-night tweets stopped. Trump visited states that pundits claimed were out his reach. In his visits to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, the GOP nominee stayed on message focussing on economics and ending corruption. Most importantly, he consistently reminded his audiences how different he was. He was the ultimate wildcard, unlike any republican or democratic politician they had ever seen.

Trump visited the places where people were susceptible to his message. The Trump team targeted working-class Democrats ready to vote against both their party and their unions. These were the voters the Democratic party took for granted as they worked to expand their coalition. The Trump team attacked that coalition where it was weakest, right down the middle.

Clinton limped down the final stretch. She understood the numbers and the demographics. She continued to talk about Trump’s racism, xenophobia, and misogyny. She continued to warn her audiences about the consequences of letting Trump get near the nuclear codes.

Clinton last TV ad was a solemn two-minute video in which she spoke on camera the entire time. In contrast, Trump’s final message was highly visual. The Trump ad used footage of congressional testimonies, burnt out factories, refugees swarming a street, and most importantly an enthusiastic rally filled with his supporters.

On November 8th, the “Kellyanne Conway Demographic,” politically and religiously moderate women in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit, and Milwaukee voted.

CNN exit polls show that 56 percent of college-educated white women in Ohio voted for Trump. In Michigan, only 50 percent of college-educated white women voted for Hillary. Trump also won among female independents in both Michigan and Wisconsin.

At the end of the weirdest election ever, suburban women in the Midwest voted in the most predictable way.