Willkie 1940/FDR 1944 counties

[Skill and Chance]

The story of 1944 seems to be FDR taking a fairly big rural hit but gaining in the Northern cities.  It's much more clear cut and easier to explain than 1940 IMO.  In terms of the counties that flipped back, the common thread seems to be heavily German rural counties that swung especially hard against FDR in 1940, and a few heavily Catholic areas of Minnesota and Iowa.  My understanding is that Michigan was one of the few states that made it relatively easy for its soldiers to vote and that the military vote favored FDR substantially  However, active duty military voting was generally discouraged at the time and outright impossible for many of those stationed abroad in several Southern states where voters had to appear in person to pay a poll tax in advance of the election.  As a result, it's likely that the 1944 electoral was substantially majority female, although we didn't have exit polls back then to prove it.  Women were generally more Republican than men back then, so this likely held down FDR's margin.