Monroe and Columbia Counties PA, 1920

[Thunderbird is the word]

I find it interesting that in a sea of (Atlas Blue) in 1920 those two counties stand out as having gone for Cox. Why is this? The one other Pennsylvania county that went Democratic that year is explanable by the fact that it's in the southern part of the state.

[SingingAnalyst]

Different demographics? In 2008 and 2012 fast-growing Livingston, Co, MI (whose county seat used to have a racist reputation) was an island of Atlas blue in a sea of red. Back in 1920 the support bases of the parties were pretty much reversed from today.

[Calthrina950]

It's been quite a while since this thread was posted in, but I will answer. Monroe and Columbia Counties were ancestrally Democratic counties in 1920, having voted for the Party in every election dating back to the time of Andrew Jackson. The same was also true of Greene County, the only other Pennsylvania county that Cox carried. All three counties are rural, working-class in character, and predominantly Protestant. Eight years later, in 1928, they defected to Herbert Hoover due to anti-Catholicism against Al Smith; Hoover was the first Republican to carry them.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It's been quite a while since this thread was posted in, but I will answer. Monroe and Columbia Counties were ancestrally Democratic counties in 1920, having voted for the Party in every election dating back to the time of Andrew Jackson. The same was also true of Greene County, the only other Pennsylvania county that Cox carried. All three counties are rural, working-class in character, and predominantly Protestant. Eight years later, in 1928, they defected to Herbert Hoover due to anti-Catholicism against Al Smith; Hoover was the first Republican to carry them.

They are what Kevin Phillips refers to as "non-Yankee, northern Protestants", and therefore as such based on their other characteristics tended to be Democratic leaning.

There was a level of stratification that is under appreciated in terms of support for Republicans in the North. Kind of like how Republicans today get 80% of Evangelicals and then lose non-Evangelicals by a small margin. Republicans back then would get 70% to 75% of the vote from "Yankee" Protestants adhering to the "pious sects", while losing or barely winning most other groups.

For Pennsylvania this meant that the strongly GOP areas had an hour glass shape (or a bowtie if you prefer) with the Northern band of counties from Susquehanna westward, SE PA west to Harrisburg (and beyond though Fulton and York were Democratic Leaning), with the two being linked together in Snyder and Union Counties.

Monroe and Columbia were in that Eastern bloc of counties that leaned Democratic relative to the state during that period.

This pattern shows up well in the 1964 map:

[VPH]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

[lfromnj]

Monroe is interesting in the 21st century due to both its insane growth rate in 1990 and 2000s but now its shrinking. Its also the only Bush to Clinton county despite the fact it trended R in 2016 quite hardly.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

On the following page it goes on to distinguish the importance of "Yankee" versus "Northern" for many Northerners the war was a "Yankee War" waged by a "Yankee Party", and there were large rural parts of PA, NY, especially in NJ and Delaware that hated the Republican Party and formed bastions of Democratic and even copperhead strength. These would become ancestrally Democratic bastions and you might say the saying, "voted as they shot" applies in these areas also.

Now there is a great map that colors in areas of the mid-Atlantic as Yankee versus non-Yankee on page 47. The dividing line follows that northern part of the hourglass I mentioned above, then cleaves Northeastward towards Albany in Upstate New York.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't point out some areas of non-Yankee strength for the GOP, including Quakers, some PA Germans (ancestrally GOP Lancaster says Hi) and the mix of peoples that dominated Philadelphia and its surrounding areas of course. This is where the Southern portion of that hour glass shape originates. This is not well distinguished on Phillips' map sadly.

[VPH]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't point out some areas of non-Yankee strength for the GOP, including Quakers, some PA Germans (ancestrally GOP Lancaster says Hi) and the mix of peoples that dominated Philadelphia and its surrounding areas of course. This is where the Southern portion of that hour glass shape originates. This is not well distinguished on Phillips' map sadly.

Man, I should have made this connection. I looked through some of Phillips' work in The Emerging Republican Majority a while ago. One of the best books about political demography, and it's free to check out on the Internet Archive through their national emergency library!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't point out some areas of non-Yankee strength for the GOP, including Quakers, some PA Germans (ancestrally GOP Lancaster says Hi) and the mix of peoples that dominated Philadelphia and its surrounding areas of course. This is where the Southern portion of that hour glass shape originates. This is not well distinguished on Phillips' map sadly.

Man, I should have made this connection. I looked through some of Phillips' work in The Emerging Republican Majority a while ago. One of the best books about political demography, and it's free to check out on the Internet Archive through their national emergency library!

What is this emergency library?

[VPH]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't point out some areas of non-Yankee strength for the GOP, including Quakers, some PA Germans (ancestrally GOP Lancaster says Hi) and the mix of peoples that dominated Philadelphia and its surrounding areas of course. This is where the Southern portion of that hour glass shape originates. This is not well distinguished on Phillips' map sadly.

Man, I should have made this connection. I looked through some of Phillips' work in The Emerging Republican Majority a while ago. One of the best books about political demography, and it's free to check out on the Internet Archive through their national emergency library!

What is this emergency library?

Right now, you can check out TONS of books to read on your computer as if it were a library. An amazing tool! They're all scans, so it does tire your eyes, but it's a good time-suck.
https://archive.org/details/books

[mianfei]

Now I would be remiss if I didn't point out some areas of non-Yankee strength for the GOP, including Quakers, some PA Germans (ancestrally GOP Lancaster says Hi) and the mix of peoples that dominated Philadelphia and its surrounding areas of course. This is where the Southern portion of that hour glass shape originates. This is not well distinguished on Phillips' map sadly.

Those non-Yankee Republicans were descended from the Second Party System, when they were Pennsylvania’s chief base of support for the Whig Party.

During that Second Party System, both Yankee Pennsylvania and the northeastern non-Yankee counties like Columbia and Monroe were heavily Democratic, and generally carried the state for that party against the Whig opposition from the Peace Church-influenced southeast.

[H. Ross Peron]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

I'm sceptical about Quakers being part of the "anti-Yankee" coalition given that sect's strong abolitionism (adhere to far longer than by most Yankees) and pietistic traits. Seems to me they'd be natural allies of the Yankees.

Hunterdon, Sussex, and Warren counties in neighbouring New Jersey display similar traits to Monroe and Columbia, being 3 of the 4 counties in NJ (the fourth being urban Hudson County) that voted for Wilson over Hughes in the 1916 Presidential Election despite it being Wilson's home state. Sussex never voted for FDR, only voting for LBJ in 1964 after 1916 while Warren voted for FDR once in 1936.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Pike and Monroe seem to have a Democratic history around 100 years ago and I can't seem to figure out why. Not coal counties (most of which only went D a little later anyway), not heavily urban either, don't seem abnormally Catholic.

Jacksonian Democrats but more to the point, since a number of Yankee pious protestants were Jacksonian Democrats prior to the 1850s, they were in religious sects that didn't flock to the GOP and then stuck with the Democrats until the urban-rural divide intensified.

The Non-Yankee Northeast is essentially that part of the Northeast which was settled by non-New Englanders prior to the American Revolution. It includes Hudson Valley Dutch, Schoharie Germans, Pennsylvania Germans, Scotch-Irish Appalachian uplanders, Quakers and the Southern-leaning inhabitants of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay. New England is the cradle the Yankee Northeast, but this latter section also includes of most of upstate New York and part of Pennsylvania settled by New Englanders after the Revolution. Almost entirely Anglo-Saxon, The Yankee Northeast was the Nineteenth-Century seedbed for both the Civil War and the Republican Party, while the non-Yankee Northeast viewed both the War and the party with considerably less favor.

I'm sceptical about Quakers being part of the "anti-Yankee" coalition given that sect's strong abolitionism (adhere to far longer than by most Yankees) and pietistic traits. Seems to me they'd be natural allies of the Yankees.

Hunterdon, Sussex, and Warren counties in neighbouring New Jersey display similar traits to Monroe and Columbia, being 3 of the 4 counties in NJ (the fourth being urban Hudson County) that voted for Wilson over Hughes in the 1916 Presidential Election despite it being Wilson's home state. Sussex never voted for FDR, only voting for LBJ in 1964 after 1916 while Warren voted for FDR once in 1936.

I think Phillips made an error here. I think his intent was to make an exhaustive list of groups that were "non-Yankee" and the emphasize how this group gave the Democrats most of their strength, but in the process he implied that everyone of those groups was Democratic leaning, which is wrong.

Quakers anchored the PA GOP hourglass in SEPA.