why does so much of the San Joaquin Valley vote republican?

[freepcrusher]

I had always been under the impression that UFW would influence a lot of the politics in those areas.

Is it because the workers don't vote as much as the growers? The growers are usually republican because they have never been too big a fan of the environmentalists.

[Sbane]

Farm workers tend to be illegals.

[Torie]

And the southern end of the valley is in the fossil fuel belt, which is heavily Pub just about everywhere these days, and getting more so at the moment. A lot of the whites trace their heritage back to Oklahoma, and still have the cultural attitudes that the residents of that state have. Cultural liberals don't like living in the central valley. There are more congenial places for them to live not so far away - albeit more expensive.

[Sbane]

Oh yeah, the whites there probably vote like 4:1 Republican. That's another reason. Actually that's the difference between places like Kern and Tulare County vs Fresno, Merced and Stanislaus. The whites more up north maybe vote Republican only 2:1 or less.