Largest city with an urban core which voted for McCain

[nclib]

Some of the largest cities to vote McCain have large suburbs within city limits and actually may have had their urban cores vote for Obama.

For reference, thanks to Lephead's work, I've listed the largest cities to vote for McCain:

pop. Overall         Obama   McCain   pop.   density
13   Jacksonville   FL   49.3%   49.8%   807,815   1,055.7
31   Oklahoma City   OK   42.6%   57.4%   551,789   901.6
38   Mesa   AZ   37.9%   60.1%   463,552   3,681.5
42   Virginia Beach   VA   49.1%   49.8%   433,746   1,773.8
46   Tulsa   OK   44.3%   55.7%   385,635   2,102.6
48   Colorado Springs, CO   CO   42.2%   56.4%   380,307   2,026.6
50   Arlington   TX   47.2%   52.0%   374,417   3,872.2
51   Wichita   KS   46.4%   51.3%   366,046   2,635.0
57   Bakersfield   CA   42.9%   55.6%   321,078   2,945.9
64   Corpus Christi   TX   47.3%   51.8%   286,462   1,852.4

Only including central cities shows this:

pop. Overall         Obama   McCain   pop.   density
1. 13   Jacksonville   FL   49.3%   49.8%   807,815   1,055.7
2. 31   Oklahoma City   OK   42.6%   57.4%   551,789   901.6
3. 42   Virginia Beach   VA   49.1%   49.8%   433,746   1,773.8
4. 46   Tulsa   OK   44.3%   55.7%   385,635   2,102.6
5. 48   Colorado Springs, CO   CO   42.2%   56.4%   380,307   2,026.6
6. 51   Wichita   KS   46.4%   51.3%   366,046   2,635.0
7. 57   Bakersfield   CA   42.9%   55.6%   321,078   2,945.9
8. 64   Corpus Christi   TX   47.3%   51.8%   286,462   1,852.4
9. 67   Anchorage   AK   40.9%   56.8%   279,243   164.5
10. 87   Lubbock   TX   33.1%   66.1%   220,483   1,892.9

Perhaps Bakersfield?

[greenforest32]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

[Ѕenator Αverroës]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

[BushKenya]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

There's a reason federal Democrats don't come to Oklahoma very often.  They'd probably get horse-whipped out in these parts.  We do have a sizeable number of Democrats, but they are slowly, but surely winnowing away.  That's seen in the Republican takeover of the State Constitutional Office in 2010.  Up to that point,  most of the State has been Democratic at the State and Local level, but the Republicans have been making inroads since roughly 2002/2004 era and finally took the State offices over unanimously in the 2010 mid-terms.

[memphis]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

Oklahoma is where the South meets the Great Plains. And not many blacks. What would you expect? Who do you think makes most urban areas in the US so Democratic? Clue: It's not the people at Starbucks.

[Vasall des Midas]

Some of the largest cities to vote McCain have large suburbs within city limits and actually may have had their urban cores vote for Obama.

For reference, thanks to Lephead's work, I've listed the largest cities to vote for McCain:

pop. Overall         Obama   McCain   pop.   density
13   Jacksonville   FL   49.3%   49.8%   807,815   1,055.7
31   Oklahoma City   OK   42.6%   57.4%   551,789   901.6

Urban cores voted for Obama. (Quite sizable areas in OKC; it's residential patterns are surprisingly unsegregated.)

38   Mesa   AZ   37.9%   60.1%   463,552   3,681.5
42   Virginia Beach   VA   49.1%   49.8%   433,746   1,773.8

Are suburbs and do not have urban cores. (Actually, they sort of do, as they were small cities before they became suburbs. But in the case of VB, that "core" is far away from the actually most urban areas which are just all around Norfolk. And probably voted for McCain, come to think of it.)

46   Tulsa   OK   44.3%   55.7%   385,635   2,102.6

The Black section did. All the urban areas added together presumably did.

48   Colorado Springs, CO   CO   42.2%   56.4%   380,307   2,026.6

Urban core voted for Obama.

50   Arlington   TX   47.2%   52.0%   374,417   3,872.2

Is a suburb and does not have an urban core. Is so close because parts of it are a colored suburb.

51   Wichita   KS   46.4%   51.3%   366,046   2,635.0

I have no idea regarding Wichita's residential and electoral patterns.

57   Bakersfield   CA   42.9%   55.6%   321,078   2,945.9
64   Corpus Christi   TX   47.3%   51.8%   286,462   1,852.4

Cities are heavily segregated and electorally polarized, with white sections voting Republican and showing higher turnout.

9. 67   Anchorage   AK   40.9%   56.8%   279,243   164.5

Not sure how we define Anchorage's urban core, really, but removing only the obvious suburbs - exurbs, really -  included in the city boundary drives the McCain percentage down a fair bit but still leaves a city that voted for McCain. Obviously, the actually downtown section voted for Obama.

10. 87   Lubbock   TX   33.1%   66.1%   220,483   1,892.9

See Bakersfield / Corpus Christi, but with more White residents. If none of the others count, this one definitely does.

[Lloyd Bentsen's Ghost]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

Oklahoma is conservative Republicanism distilled into its purest, most evangelical, most anti-elitist, most reactionary form. It's where hardscrabble, no-nonsense farmers in the western half of the state meet holy-rolling, pistol-packing Southerners in the eastern half of the state. The "Little Dixie" area toward the Arkansas border still elects a fair number of Democrats to local office, but this is more out of force of habit than anything else and they more or less say and believe the same things their Republican counterparts do.

At least this is what my relatives who live in Oklahoma tell me (they had the misfortune and/or lack of sense to move from Texas to Oklahoma; we've never quite let them live that down).

[asexual trans victimologist]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

Oklahoma is conservative Republicanism distilled into its purest, most evangelical, most anti-elitist, most reactionary form. It's where hardscrabble, no-nonsense farmers in the western half of the state meet holy-rolling, pistol-packing Southerners in the eastern half of the state. The "Little Dixie" area toward the Arkansas border still elects a fair number of Democrats to local office, but this is more out of force of habit than anything else and they more or less say and believe the same things their Republican counterparts do.

At least this is what my relatives who live in Oklahoma tell me (they had the misfortune and/or lack of sense to move from Texas to Oklahoma; we've never quite let them live that down).

Welcome to the forum. It's funny because it's true.

[Vasall des Midas]

Strap them kids in
Give 'em a little bit of vodka in a cherry coke
We're going to Oklahoma to the family reunion for the first time in years
It's up at uncle Slayton's cause he's getting on in years
You know he no longer travels but he's still pretty spry
He's not much on talking and he's just too mean to die
And they'll be comin' down from Kansas
and from west Arkansas
It'll be one great big old party like you never saw
Uncle Slayton's got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He's got a Airstream trailer and a Holstein cow
He still makes whiskey 'cause he still knows how
He plays that Choctaw bingo every Friday night
You know he had to leave Texas but he won't say why

[throatcutter]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

The Oklahomans want to provide for themselves instead of sponging off tax payers.

[memphis]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

The Oklahomans want to provide for themselves instead of sponging off tax payers.

They're doing a very bad job at that then.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html

[So the Heroes Fall]

Obviously this depends on how we define each city's "urban core", but the part of Wichita within the I-235 loop voted around 54% for Obama. It appears the city as a whole did minus the heavily white and suburban in nature Westlink Village neighborhood too.

[Insula Dei]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

I'd buy that book.

[TXMichael]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

The Oklahomans want to provide for themselves instead of sponging off tax payers.

They're doing a very bad job at that then.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html

[ModerateCoward]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

The Oklahomans want to provide for themselves instead of sponging off tax payers.

They're doing a very bad job at that then.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html

[InsaneTrollLogic]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

Abortion and Brown People. Next. If it wasn't for civil rights or women's lib, the map would probably be reversed.

[Communists For McCain]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma?

Thomas Frank should write this as the sequel to What's the Matter With Kansas?

At least this is what my relatives who live in Oklahoma tell me (they had the misfortune and/or lack of sense to move from Texas to Oklahoma; we've never quite let them live that down).

Ugh, my family did the same.

And we didn't move from West Texas (see Hell On Earth) or some podunk town, we moved from Galveston.  GALVESTON!
Well, at least we moved to Tulsa instead of say Okmulgee or Ramona.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Though isn't that like going from the apartments next to the bowling alley to the trailer park?

[Communists For McCain]

What the hell is up with Oklahoma? Even Utah isn't that bad

Abortion and Brown People. Next. If it wasn't for civil rights or women's lib, the map would probably be reversed.

Not quite.
Tulsa County would vote stubbornly Republican due to the strong oil interests.  It's probably one of the most ancestrally Republican urban areas south of the Mason Dixon line.
That, and quite a few rural areas in the panhandle and the northwestern part of the state that vote more like Kansans.

[Communists For McCain]

Though isn't that like going from the apartments next to the bowling alley to the trailer park?

Hey man, at least the apartments were next to a bowling alley.  All the trailer park had was crack rock and moms on welfare who had 800 different types of VD.

I live in an apartment next to a bowling alley...........

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Let's just say r^2 equals more than .5 in this situation for my variables..

Though isn't that like going from the apartments next to the bowling alley to the trailer park?

Hey man, at least the apartments were next to a bowling alley.  All the trailer park had was crack rock and moms on welfare who had 800 different types of VD.and 5 kids from 5 different dads.

I live in an apartment next to a bowling alley...........

and at least your trailer is a double wide with a jacuzzi, right? I actually live in an apartment next to a liqour store and a check cashing place.