What is the most conservative major US metropolitan area in Northeast/Midwest?

[TDAS04]

Maybe Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Omaha?

[Хahar 🤔]

Salt Lake City

[TDAS04]

Salt Lake City

I meant outside of the South or West.  I'll rephrase my question.

[Sol]

Probably Grand Rapids, Cincy, or Milwaukee for the big ones.

[ElectionsGuy]

Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh. Hell even the Milwaukee area is pretty conservative.

[TDAS04]

Yeah, Grand Rapids is pretty conservative.

Indianapolis is becoming more liberal or moderate, but historically it's been both quite Republican and quite conservative.  Before 2004, Democratic presidential candidates hardly ever carried Marion County.  Even in 1964, Goldwater lost it by only 3 points.

Also, during the 1976 Republican primaries, Reagan beat Ford in Indiana, including the Indianapolis area.  Most of Reagan's other primary victories were in the South or West.

While Obama carried Marion County handily, Romney won by large margins in most of the adjacent counties.

I suppose Indy itself is already much of the metro.  Is that why people say Cincinnati or other metros are more conservative (more suburbs, small communities)?

[Sol]

For small metros, Fort Wayne, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Harrisburgh, St. Cloud, Huntington, Atlantic City, Cumberland, and Lima are good examples.

[RedSLC]

Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh. Hell even the Milwaukee area is pretty conservative.

Obama did win the Milwaukee metro area in 2012, and the Pittsburgh metro area has been trending more republican, but is still fairly moderate. I'd agree with the other three, though, especially Indianapolis and Cincinnati (historically, even the core county has been republican.)

[Gass3268]

Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh. Hell even the Milwaukee area is pretty conservative.

Obama did win the Milwaukee metro area in 2012, and the Pittsburgh metro area has been trending more republican, but is still fairly moderate. I'd agree with the other three, though, especially Indianapolis and Cincinnati (historically, even the core county has been republican.)

Yeah, Obama won the Milwaukee Metro area both times. In 2012 he won by 5.16% (Obama - 52.07% / Romney - 46.91%)

[Arturo Belano]

Omaha is really conservative, more so than Lincoln. Douglas County has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate once since 1964 (Obama in 2008).

[traininthedistance]

For small metros, Fort Wayne, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Harrisburgh, St. Cloud, Huntington, Atlantic City, Cumberland, and Lima are good examples.

The Atlantic City area is not particularly conservative.

[Sol]

For small metros, Fort Wayne, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Harrisburgh, St. Cloud, Huntington, Atlantic City, Cumberland, and Lima are good examples.

The Atlantic City area is not particularly conservative.

Meant Ocean City, sorry.

[traininthedistance]

For small metros, Fort Wayne, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Harrisburgh, St. Cloud, Huntington, Atlantic City, Cumberland, and Lima are good examples.

The Atlantic City area is not particularly conservative.

Meant Ocean City, sorry.

It's always weird to me to see Cape May County be classified as the "Ocean City metro area".  I know it's basically algorithmic, since Ocean City is the largest place, but it's not really a hub for the region- if one exists, it would either be Cape May Court House (which doesn't have that many people, but does have government and services for the year-round locals), or it might even be more accurate to lump it in with Atlantic City.  That whole area is mostly retirees and tourism, which lends it a far different "feel" than your usual metro.

Or, you could even see it as a far-outlying part of the Philly region.  Not much crazier than calling Allentown part of the NYC metro.

[Mr. Illini]

Grand Rapids, Omaha, and Cincinnati

[Bandit3 the Worker]

For some reason, Utica NY is a very Republican metropolitan area by Northeastern standards. Also, Waterbury CT used to be a separate metropolitan area, and the area right around Waterbury is still unusually Republican. The main newspaper there is so right-wing that the Tea Party reads it nationwide.