Top 100 “McGovern dropoff” counties (1968 to 1972 by percent)

[jimrtex]

About 2/3 (67 out of 100 if i not erred somewhere) are in Texas. Not bad))))

Wallace had done relatively poorly in Texas as compared to other Southern states, and Humphrey benefited from LBJ who was president at the time. Texas has lots of counties, so there are plenty of counties to differentiate between traditional Democratic support in the rural counties, and more liberal support in Urban areas. After the 1968 election, the House breakdown was 142D:8R. By 1972 it had improved to 133D:17R.

Texas also strongly supports the military, which is highlighted in Coryell, Bell, and Lampasas around Fort Hood (the other high military presences are in urban counties such as Bexar and El Paso, where the military is less dominant).

Travis, Harris, and Dallas only swung 20%, 21%, and 29% to Nixon while the swing in Coryell was 82%.

[jimrtex]

How many people did that drop in Loving County represent?

18 to 7.

Loving was Wallace's strongest Texas county in 1968:

1968: W40-N23-H18
1972: N55-M7

1972 was the worst Democratic performance in the county until 2016, when Trump won 58:4 (two for Stein and 1 for Johnson)

[jimrtex]

Here’s a map showing these counties’ location. It’s a pity I could not do those in Hawaii:

One can see the concentration in the arch-conservative Southern Plains of Texas and Oklahoma, and the comparably socially conservative and traditionally Democratic southern West Virginia. It is odd, though, that no county adjacent to this West Virginian bloc compares with the losses McGovern suffered.

Who was president in 1968, and which state was he from? Who was his Vice President.

It would be interesting to see the counties where Nixon had the largest increase between 1968 and 1972.