What is the most socially conservative county or town in the Northeast?

[danwxman]

Keep in mind how much of the state's population lives in the lean social liberal or social liberal counties.

Centre County (home of Penn State) is socially conservative?

Centre County, outside of State College is socially conservative. The city is somewhat more liberal, with all the college age folks, but overall Penn State really isn't a liberal university. I'd venture to say the students there are probably more conservative then the average college student.

[nini2287]

Keep in mind how much of the state's population lives in the lean social liberal or social liberal counties.

Centre County (home of Penn State) is socially conservative?

Centre County, outside of State College is socially conservative. The city is somewhat more liberal, with all the college age folks, but overall Penn State really isn't a liberal university. I'd venture to say the students there are probably more conservative then the average college student.

It seems pretty liberal (not when compared to NYU or Brown, of course).  If I go there next year, I'll give you a better idea.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Keep in mind how much of the state's population lives in the lean social liberal or social liberal counties.

Centre County (home of Penn State) is socially conservative?

Centre County, outside of State College is socially conservative. The city is somewhat more liberal, with all the college age folks, but overall Penn State really isn't a liberal university. I'd venture to say the students there are probably more conservative then the average college student.

It seems pretty liberal (not when compared to NYU or Brown, of course).  If I go there next year, I'll give you a better idea.

State College is kind of famous for being a conservative college town.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

State College is kind of famous for being a conservative college town.

Which is why it voted strongly for Gore in 2000 and even stronger for Kerry in 2004? Hell, in 2004 it almost flipped the county...

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

State College is kind of famous for being a conservative college town.

Which is why it voted strongly for Gore in 2000 and even stronger for Kerry in 2004? Hell, in 2004 it almost flipped the county...

Ignoring the 50,000 college students who probably all live on campus.......

When I was talking about the town, I meant the townies.

You seem to underestimate how liberal the normal college campus is. There are plenty of campuses where Kerry got 75% or more. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Have you actually got any evidence for that or by "conservative" do you mean slightly to the right of Leon Trotsky?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Have you actually got any evidence for that or by "conservative" do you mean slightly to the right of Leon Trotsky?

By conservative, I meant more conservative than the average college town.  What part of that don't you understand? You seem pretty dense sometimes.

Again, I was talking about the townies, and you're way under-estimating how liberal the average college town is.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Here's something to think about. In that ranking of grad schools I did, the top five colleges were in

Palo Alto and Berkeley, CA
Madison, WI
Ithaca, NY
Ann Arbor, MI

You'd probably consider Berkeley, Madison, and Ithaca well to the left of Trotsky, and Palo Alto and Ann Arbor pretty close to Trotsky.

[Central Lake]

It is interesting that even though this thread is 17 years old, when excluding Pa, two posters (Filuwaurdjan and nclib) felt northern Maine is the most socially conservative.

Then in the Trump era Maine especially ME-02 swings strongly towards the Republicans.

[Fwillb21]

Keep in mind how much of the state's population lives in the lean social liberal or social liberal counties.

I’d at least have Centre, Dauphin, and Monroe as Lean Socially Liberal, and Chester and Bucks as Socially Liberal.

Just realized how old this thread is.

[I’m not Stu]

Potter County, PA?

[smoltchanov]

North-East of Pennsylvania? IMHO - Piscataquis county, Maine. Though some upstate NY counties could be candadates too...

[BigSkyBob]

There some towns that are heavily orthodox Jewish.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

There some towns that are heavily orthodox Jewish.

*Kiryas Joel has entered the chat*

[progressive85]

I do know that Saugus was the closest town to Boston to vote for Cheeto in 2016, but I don't know if that's a socially conservative town.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Keep in mind how much of the state's population lives in the lean social liberal or social liberal counties.

Of the Historically Republican counties in PA (by my definition, those that have not voted DEM unless in 1912, 1932, 1936, or 1964) since 1856, Butler, Tioga, McKean, Bradford, and Susque are all "social conservative" counties. While Union is a "lean social conservative" county.

And if we include Potter as a historically Republican county (D+Populist>50% in 1892), that is a "frighteningly social conservative" county.

[Senator Incitatus]

Kiryas Joel.

[sting in the rafters]

Lakewood NJ with all the Orthodox Jews. Hell it should've been mentioned 17 years ago because of all the snowbirds even then.

[Skill and Chance]

If we ignore PA, it's probably South Boston or one of [historically] Francophone parts of Northern Maine.

This.  For small towns/counties, the Aroostook area of Maine.  For larger cities/counties, many of the towns in MA from South Boston to the RI border have a Catholic traditionalist streak to them.  Bristol County is probably going to flip soon.

[GregTheGreat657]

Of the non Orthodox Jewish areas, south central PA

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

How are we defining social conservatism here? Seems pretty subjective tbh beyond just the raw results of how a town voted.

[King of Kensington]

Are there any evangelical pockets in Upstate NY?

[King of Kensington]

Hard to know how accurate this is - a lot of evangelicals are in mainline churches I think - but Allegany County NY stands out.  68% GOP in the last election, mostly German and English/"American" ancestry.

https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/dominant-religions-in-the-us-county-by-county/

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I hate to say it, but BS Bob is probably correct that the best answer currently is a Hasidic enclave, either in Brooklyn or somewhere else in the Hudson Valley or North/Central Jersey (such as the previously-mentioned Kiryas Joel and Lakewood). But Orthodox Jews are idiosyncratic enough that there would also be a more "generic socon" set of answers, probably mostly in Pennsylvania and Maine. (Rod Dreher was extolling Elk County, Pennsylvania in particular a while back, but he might have been full of sh**t.) The Massachusetts answers in this thread are all based on conventional wisdom about the nature of New England Catholicism that doesn't really hold true anymore.

If we extend the definition of "Northeast" down to the Potomac then we get all sorts of fun options in places like Delmarva and Appalachian Maryland, but I for one wouldn't extend the definition that far for these purposes.

[LabourJersey]

There some towns that are heavily orthodox Jewish.

*Kiryas Joel has entered the chat*

Kiryas Joel or Lakewood, NJ would be my answer for this. There's also a couple of small towns on the Jersey Shore founded by very devout Protestant communities that to this day are still dry towns, though I think they have secularized a decent amount in the past few decades