Jacksonville

[TDAS04]

Why is the largest city in Florida (and 12th largest in the US) so conservative?  It was one of only two 500,000+ cities where Obama lost (along with OKC).

The politics appear to be racially polarized, with the white majority mostly Republican, and most elected Democratic officials consisting of blacks.  I know North Florida is Deep South, but I would have thought that such a large city would vote Democratic (along with Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, etc.)

Maybe the large land area and sprawl contribute to the voting patterns.  Is Jacksonville basically Deep South (along with rest of North Florida), and does the sprawl keep it from voting like most other cities with that population size?

[minionofmidas]

Jacksonville annexed its suburbs (though they have since spread beyond). So comparing city it with cities is not entirely fair. Anyways Atlanta is infinitely huger and Nashville is special (as well as not all that Democratic if you take the entire metro) and Charlotte is, apart from larger, also more of a real city. Jacksonville grew on tourism and retirement to an extent, so it has something in common with Fort Myers and all that sort of Florida place. Also a military presence IIRC?

[DINGO Joe]

North Florida is the South, South Florida is the North.

[Del Tachi]

Jacksonville is a consolidated city-county, so comparing to other realcities is an apples to oranges type of comparison. 

It would be like if the city of Houston decided to consolidate with Harris County.  Houston proper just became a lot more conservative. 

[TDAS04]

OK, so city-county consolidation explains a lot.  Thank you.

[Donerail]

The city-county plays a large part of the reason, but it is culturally very Southern, and the military is the largest employer in the city by far - there's at least four military installations there off the top of my head, probably second-largest on the East Coast. The rest of the economy is based on transportation. You'd have to take out a lot of the suburbs to get it to vote D as a result of the large military presence.