Why has the mountain west never been a Democratic stronghold?

[Scam of God]

And this predates the liberalization of the Democratic Party by a very long time - even back when the Republicans were the more progressive of the two, the landlocked west voted for the GOP in numbers about the same as they do today, so I don't believe ideology has much of anything to do with it. It is probably the only region of the nation that has never consistently voted for the Democratic Party over an extended period of time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It was in the '30's and, to an extent, the '40's. Though I suppose it depends what you mean by "an extended period of time".

(oh, and in 1896. lol).

[Scam of God]

Though I suppose it depends what you mean by "an extended period of time".

I'd say that a generation - twenty five years, or five election cycles - would be sufficient. Roosevelt never made great inroads in the region, and usually won by only a few points in most states; he never dominated there the way he did in most of the rest of the country.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Though I suppose it depends what you mean by "an extended period of time".

I'd say that a generation - twenty five years, or five election cycles - would be sufficient. Roosevelt never made great inroads in the region, and usually won by only a few points in most states; he never dominated there the way he did in most of the rest of the country.

I don't know - Montana and Utah were always pretty strong, even towards the end of what might be thought of as the New Deal electoral period. But as far as longer term domination goes, we're probably dealing with (possibly indirect) economic factors to an extent. More interesting, to me at least, would be the big falls in Democratic support in the interior West at all levels since the 1970's or so.

[mileslunn]

I think it is a combination of factors.  Historically the Democrats were a predominately southern party and then over time expanded in the Northeast, so a lot in this region probably felt they didn't represent them well.  Over the last fifty years, I think it has to do with the fact this is the most libertarian region in the country.  People here generally are quite individualistic and favour smaller government.  This was frontier country in its early days so many who distrusted government and wanted greater freedom settled in this area.  In fact I think the Republicans pandering to the religious right is what hurt them in the region in the 2008 election as Obama did carry Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico, almost won Montana, and might have won Arizona had it not been McCain's home state.  Now it is true that the growing Hispanic population in the Southwest may be playing a role in trending that area towards the Democrats.  You also have a large Mormon community primarily in Utah, but to a lesser extent in Wyoming and Idaho.  They tend to be very socially conservative and thus support the Republicans much the way the White Evangelicals do. 

Interestingly enough, in Canada, where I come from, Alberta has gone Conservative (or one of their predecessors) in pretty much every election since confederation and this is the province directly north of the Mountain West, so this is not just in the US, but extends northward.  And the Liberals were prior to the 60s the more pro-free enterprise party unlike today and yet it still went Conservative, Reform, Alliance, or Social Credit.

[Vepres]

Well, during the late-19th century and pre-Wilson 20th century, the relatively un-bigoted and open minded people of the west supported rights for blacks and progressive reforms such as the anti-trust laws or national parks. After Wilson, I think it was a "leave me alone government" mentality. Washington was far away, and the eastern half of the country had a different mentality towards things. You could almost say the west has been libertarian-leaning since the New Deal, which would explain it's rejection (for the most part) of Kennedy and Carter ('64 was different). The only real liberal to do well in the west relative to the popular vote since Wilson would be Obama. That had to do with the corruption, out of control spending, social conservatism, hawkish attitudes, and failure to keep their promises of small government of the Republicans.

[War on Want]

As Al said during the 1930's and 1940's, the mountain west was pretty Democratic. The problems with Idaho and other mountain states since the late 60's has been the environmentalism and gun control of the Democratic Party, along with the decline of unions and mining in a few states.

These maps comparing 1968 and 2008 show it all:
Wyoming:




Utah:




Idaho:




Montana:




The trend is pretty obvious, the logging and minning counties used to be the Democratic counties, while the small cities, and farming areas were dominated by the Republicans.

[phk]

There are plenty of D's in the Mountain West... Its just UT-WY-ID that are super-Republican.

[mileslunn]

There are plenty of D's in the Mountain West... Its just UT-WY-ID that are super-Republican.

That is partially true, although there is no strong Democrat state in the Mountain West.  Nevada and New Mexico are generally bellwethers as usually whomever wins those states wins the White House.  Colorado has historically been more Republican than the country as a whole, but not as staunchly Republican as Utah-Wyoming-Idaho.  The growing Latino community as well as the fact much as the internal migration I believe is coming from California as opposed to the Midwest may partially be affecting the shifts.  Montana and Arizona are still generally Republican states, just not by the massive margins you see in Idaho, Wyoming, or Utah and both have their pockets of support for the Democrats (i.e. Butte, Montana and Tucson, Arizona). 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I think since the late 1890's the Dems made inroads in the urbanized cities.  The Mountain west with the exclusion of NV,NM, and AZ were isolated and somewhat prairie pioneer states.  The republicans were able to make inroads in those states.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The mountain west was Democratic. Arizona, and New Mexico because of settlement by Southerners and Nevada cause of Silver. Montana also had heavy settlement by Southerners and mormons in Utah were heavily Dem for quite a while. Colorado was the only state that was really Republican along with Wyoming to a degree and Idaho. The only one of them one by Wilkie in 1940 was CO. If you look at the House composition maps on Wikipedia prior to the 1960's. The Southeast and Southwest were most Democratic. 1946 is a good illustration of when GOP strength was highest that it still was lock out of not only the South but also the Southwest.

[Rob]

mormons in Utah were heavily Dem for quite a while.

There's actually a fascinating (but little-known) story behind early Mormon politics. In the 1840s, when the Mormons were living in Nauvoo, Illinois, Joseph Smith's brother received a revelation in which God told him to vote the Democratic ticket. Joseph publicly backed him up, saying his brother's revelations had been correct before. So, of course, virtually all Mormons voted for the Democrat.

This was the beginning of a vicious cycle. Whigs resented the bloc vote against them, and so began attacking the Mormons at election time. Of course, this only reinforced the Mormons' Democratic allegiance. Brigham Young, whose influence on the church was massive, was a lifelong Democrat; this, along with the LDS doctrine of white supremacy, led most Mormons to support the Democratic Party throughout the 19th century. Even more important was that the Republican Party was seen as less friendly to the Mormon Church, dating back to their first national platform which compared polygamy to slavery.

So, when Utah finally achieved statehood, William Jennings Bryan won a lopsided victory, with 83 percent of the vote (it didn't hurt his cause that Utah had a significant silver mining industry, either!). But with the Republican victory, LDS leaders decided that they would be better served if both parties competed for Mormon votes; so "almost at random," they told each family to vote either Democratic or Republican!

This, along with the return of relative prosperity and the end of the silver issue, meant that Utah had the biggest swing of any state in 1900, giving McKinley a majority when he hadn't cracked a fifth of the vote four years before! This was followed by the election of LDS Apostle Reed Smoot to the US Senate as a Republican, and the Democratic adoption of an anti-Mormon strategy in 1904 meant that Utah was now a Republican state; to the extent that the Beehive State voted for Taft in 1912, the only state to do so besides Vermont (the LDS President publicly said he was supporting Taft).

After that, Utah has remained generally Republican, excepting the New Deal era, becoming more-so as social issues have gained prominence.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The Democrat did well in western states in the close elections of 1916 and 1948, while Carter did terribly in 1976.

[WillK]

And this predates the liberalization of the Democratic Party by a very long time - even back when the Republicans were the more progressive of the two, the landlocked west voted for the GOP in numbers about the same as they do today, so I don't believe ideology has much of anything to do with it. It is probably the only region of the nation that has never consistently voted for the Democratic Party over an extended period of time.

The area went for Bryan in 1896 and 1900 as well as Wilson in 1916.  Dont seem at all similar to the numbers going GOP today.  Also went for FDR quite strongly from 1932 - 1948.

If your looking at extended periods of time, the area was not consistent for either party until 1968. 
Since then it has been solid GOP in presidential elections.