most ancestrally democratic area in the country?

[freepcrusher]

what do you think it is?

In Texas, Atascosa, Frio, LaSalle, McMullen, Jim Hogg, Zapata, Starr, Hidalgo, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Live Oak counties as well as part of Cameron, Harris, and Travis counties have never been represented by a republican in congress since at least the 1870s, if at all.

[phk]

Arkansas.

[tpfkaw]

I'm guessing some towns in New Hampshire.

[Miles]

Arkansas or West Virginia

[Stranger in a strange land]

parts of Boston, and coal towns in Southern WV and Eastern KY.

[rbt48]

Parts of lower Manhattan, NYC have been strongly Democratic since the time of Martin Van Buren's Presidency.

[freepcrusher]

Parts of lower Manhattan, NYC have been strongly Democratic since the time of Martin Van Buren's Presidency.

you are surprisingly right. I always thought that New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx) were all strongly republican until the Great Depression. Take a look at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70th_Congress. I'm not sure how the numbering system worked back then but i thought low numbers = new york city and high numbers = buffalo. Notice how numbers 2 through 18 were democratic. I'm assuming most of those districts had high jewish and ethnic catholic populations.

However, in the state of New York, if one was to get outside of the city of New York, it was strongly republican. Even FDR lost almost all the counties in his home state all four times. The only reason he won his home state is because of the city of New York.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Parts of lower Manhattan, NYC have been strongly Democratic since the time of Martin Van Buren's Presidency.

you are surprisingly right. I always thought that New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx) were all strongly republican until the Great Depression. Take a look at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70th_Congress. I'm not sure how the numbering system worked back then but i thought low numbers = new york city and high numbers = buffalo. Notice how numbers 2 through 18 were democratic. I'm assuming most of those districts had high jewish and ethnic catholic populations.

However, in the state of New York, if one was to get outside of the city of New York, it was strongly republican. Even FDR lost almost all the counties in his home state all four times. The only reason he won his home state is because of the city of New York.

As far back as the late 1800's, GOP strength was concentrated in the Upstate areas and in some enclaves throughout the city of New York like the East side. The presence of Irish, then italians, and then other minorities have given the Democrats a decided edge in most elections in New York City going back to the 1840's.

There was a lot of penetration in 1920 into New York City because of the Irish abandoning the Dems over Versaille. However in 1922 these were wiped out for the most part and the Democrats actually controlled the delegation from 1923-1947. Even Coolidge winning NYC couldn't regain a majority of NY seats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_New_York

Some people like Fiorella La Guardia and Jacob Javits represented Manhattan seats that really weren't Republican seats and were won largely because of a personal vote for those individuals. The East side district had a GOP machine of sorts and elected people like Coudert and then Lindsay and Green before it collapsed in the 1990's.

The GOP dominance over Long Island and other areas, that are often whined about having been lost, existed for only a decade in the 1950's and early 1960's. After that they were constantly competative with seats going back and forth in different elections with an exception being the 4th seat (sometimes numbered something else).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That area in eastern Kentucky.

[DrScholl]

Portions of Downstate Illinois qualify as that, namely Gallatin County which was carried by Mondale and was the only county carried 1994's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Dawn Clark Netsch (what a wipeout that was, a Democrat losing Cook).

The obvious answers are many counties in the Mississippi Delta and the Black Belt.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Portions of Downstate Illinois qualify as that, namely Gallatin County which was carried by Mondale and was the only county carried 1994's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Dawn Clark Netsch (what a wipeout that was, a Democrat losing Cook).

The obvious answers are many counties in the Mississippi Delta and the Black Belt.

Those areas would've voted Republican prior to blacks getting voting rights if the blacks had them.

[DrScholl]

Those areas would've voted Republican prior to blacks getting voting rights if the blacks had them.

Right, there is that issue.

[Verily]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Brooks County, Texas is the only county in the country to have never voted for a Republican for any national office.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What about Elliott County, KY?

Brooks has never voted Republican for President though.

[RI]

The obvious answers are many counties in the Mississippi Delta and the Black Belt.

The Mississippi Delta and the Black Belt were actually the most Republican parts of the South for about the twenty years following the Civil War. Don't know if you want to count Reconstruction or not though.

[Nichlemn]

Portions of Downstate Illinois qualify as that, namely Gallatin County which was carried by Mondale and was the only county carried 1994's Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Dawn Clark Netsch (what a wipeout that was, a Democrat losing Cook).

Weird, it was won by Brady in 2010. Big trend that must have been?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Parts of New York.

[freepcrusher]

what about Tucson, AZ? Tucson is the epicenter of what I call old western populist democrats. Since statehood the majority of the city (except for the wealthy northern and eastern parts) has always been represented by a democrat in congress. Arizona used an at large system from 1912-1949 where they only elected democrats and when Tucson was put in the 2nd district, it was represented by Patten from 1949-1955, the Udall Brothers from 1955-1991, Ed Pastor from 91-03, and now Raul Grijalva.