Northern Democratic counties that became Republican counties

[soniquemd21921]

Long before the "Southern realignment" there were several Democratic-since-the-Civil-War counties in northern states that became Republican in the 20's and 30's and stayed Republican. Some of these counties were at one time the most Democratic counties in their state:

Schoharie, New York (before 1920 this was almost always the lone upstate county to go Democratic; it stayed Republican afterwards and voted against FDR all four times)

Pike, Pennsylvania (never voted Republican before 1920, by 1948 the county that gave Teddy Roosevelt only 36% of the vote in 1904 gave Dewey 70%)

Sussex, New Jersey (and neighboring Hunterdon and Warren, which were as Democratic as Hudson was before the 1920's; since 1920 the only Democrat to carry Sussex was LBJ in 1964)

Holmes, Ohio (largely Amish county - it was almost always the most Democratic county in OH before the 30's; it's been heavily Republican since the 50's) + most of the German counties in western Ohio, particularly Auglaize, Defiance and Putnam

Franklin, Adams and Wells, Indiana

several southern Illinois counties, especially Clinton and Effingham.

Ozaukee, Wisconsin (heavily German)

Carroll, Maryland (since 1920 the only Democrats to win here were FDR in 1932 and LBJ in 1964; before that it usually always went Democratic)

What changed in these counties?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I mourn for the Southern realignment in 1980.

[soniquemd21921]

I hope I'm not the only one that wishes Vermont still voted like it did in 1936 and not 2008.

[Vazdul (Formerly Chairman of the Communist Party of Ontario)]

I hope I'm not the only one that wishes Vermont still voted like it did in 1936 and not 2008.

You can have Vermont and Maine. I just wish the rest of the country voted like it did in 1936 and not 2010.

[Wrecking Ball and Chain]

Pike, PA and Sussex, NJ are thanks to commuters, Pike is actually considered part of the NYC metropolitan area and I have heard of people commuting from Pennsylvania to NYC (though I suspect most commuters probably go to somewhere else in the NYC area.) Ozaukee, WI is obviously due to Milwaukee suburbia takeover, though if it flipped prior to that it could be the revolt against Democrats that happened in most heavily German areas after WWI. Carroll, MD is another obvious case of exurban takeover, from Baltimore.

Schoharie, NY is interesting though, I wonder what the story is there. There must've been some type of local machine, maybe a DA opted to finally put some party boss behind bars and the machine never really recovered.

[traininthedistance]

Pike, PA and Sussex, NJ are thanks to commuters, Pike is actually considered part of the NYC metropolitan area and I have heard of people commuting from Pennsylvania to NYC (though I suspect most commuters probably go to somewhere else in the NYC area.) Ozaukee, WI is obviously due to Milwaukee suburbia takeover, though if it flipped prior to that it could be the revolt against Democrats that happened in most heavily German areas after WWI. Carroll, MD is another obvious case of exurban takeover, from Baltimore.

Schoharie, NY is interesting though, I wonder what the story is there. There must've been some type of local machine, maybe a DA opted to finally put some party boss behind bars and the machine never really recovered.

Pike and Sussex didn't have NYC commuters back in the 1920s and 1930s.  That's a far, far more recent phenomenon than their Republican voting patterns. 

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I hope I'm not the only one that wishes Vermont still voted like it did in 1936 and not 2008.

Nope, in fact I know of several on this forum who do likewise, including myself everytime I see a Democrat winning a landslide there these days (so basically every election. )

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I hope I'm not the only one that wishes Vermont still voted like it did in 1936 and not 2008.

Nope, in fact I know of several on this forum who do likewise, including myself everytime I see a Democrat winning a landslide there these days (so basically every election. )

Obviously, I am guilty as charged on both counts, and anyone who knows me well enough would know that.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

BTW: I think that from the beginning the German-American vote was split along Catholic/Protestant lines, with the Catholics voting Democrat and the Protestants voting Republican.

[soniquemd21921]

German Protestants seemed to have been somewhat split; some largely German counties in Pennsylvania were and still are Republican (Union, Snyder, Lancaster, Lebanon), while others were historically Democratic (Berks, York, Adams). York is another historically Democratic county that eventually became Republican.

Historically the second-most ethnic Republican voting bloc after Yankees were Scandinavians, especially Swedes. It seems that Scandinavians became more evenly split with the advent of the New Deal, while Yankees continued to vote at least 80%-90% Republican until Goldwater (the 80-90% figure is based on pre-1964 election results from small towns in New England and New York).

[hopper]

I am from Somerset County, NJ and I am shocked Sussex County was once a Dem stronghold. Its as conservative as a county as the Deep South US is as a whole. Must have been the realignment of the political parties in the 1980's-early to mid 90's that Sussex County went Republican. There is nothing in Sussex County its the boonies(alot of farms) except for car dealerships and a few food places.

I know Sussex County had Matthew J. Rinaldo Andrew Maguire as its US Representative in the US House before Marge Roukema(a Moderate Republican)came along and beat Rinaldo Maguire in the 1980 Republican Wave.

[soniquemd21921]

Sussex County has been a Republican county since the 1920's. In 1936 it was one of only four counties in the entire state that Alf Landon won (the others were Morris, Ocean and Monmouth).