George Wallace support outside the south

[Thunderbird is the word]

In 68 which counties did Wallace preform the strongest in outside Dixie and why?

[ElectionsGuy]

I did a brief observation of Wallace % in counties in a few states, and what I noticed is in the west is the counties that had the most Wallace % were rural and many times mountainous counties in places like Idaho and Nevada. In the Midwest and rust belt, it was the Appalachian stretch of Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well the southern parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Pretty much on par with what you'd expect.

[Bismarck]

In Indiana his best counties were Morgan, Lake, and Porter. He got 16-18 percent in these counties. porter and Lake are in the region, the chicago suburbs and exurbs, so there was probably some racial tension. Morgan is a county in central Indiana that has long been associated with racism and the KKK.

[SNJ1985]

He broke 20% in two Idaho counties, Custer County and Lemhi County.

[Republican Michigander]

He won the 1972 Democrat primary in Michigan. That's when cross district busing was a major issue.

[Thunderbird is the word]

He won the 1972 Democrat primary in Michigan. That's when cross district busing was a major issue.

Wonder if he did well in South Boston also then in the Massachussetts primary.

[/]

He won the 1972 Democrat primary in Michigan. That's when cross district busing was a major issue.

He was also kind of shot the day before, so...

[Kingpoleon]

Do you mean the Deep South?

I always thought he could win Arizona, New Mexico, West Virgnia, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and maybe Pennsylvania plus the Deep South in 1976 if he ran against Ed Muskie or Mo Udall and Mark Hatfield or Charles Percy.

[tpfkaw]

He won the 1972 Democrat primary in Michigan. That's when cross district busing was a major issue.

Wonder if he did well in South Boston also then in the Massachussetts primary.

Not so much in '72, but in '76 he won the city of Boston and either came in second or a very close third statewide.

[VPH]

A lot of his 1972 support boiled down to big-city ethnics like Poles, Italians, etc. A lot of the same folks who fled McGovern en masse for Nixon later.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Didn't the Northern states where he did well in the primaries have open primaries?

[All Along The Watchtower]

It wasn't just "white ethnics." There were plenty of white southerners (or rather, descendants of white southerners) living in Northern cities like Detroit, Cleveland, etc. at the time. I suspect that Wallace's support came from some of those voters, as well.

[SingingAnalyst]

Macomb, MI, 14.1%:reaction to Detroit riot and possibility of school busing. Also Wards 6 and 7 in Boston, MA.

[RBH]

Wards 6/7 also gave Louise Day Hicks 70%+ in 1967.

Wallace also got nearly 17% in Wyandotte County, KS. Presumably for reasons that led to white flight later on in the 70s.

Same reasons as Wallace getting 15-20% in Cook County, IL townships (Stickney, Thornton, Worth) or his 18% in Cicero.

[mianfei]

He broke 20% in two Idaho counties, Custer County and Lemhi County.

I’ve noticed that too. Custer was one of only three counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy and then Goldwater. Even at over seventy percent Republican countywide today, the west of Custer County votes Democratic – though I presume that’s as a ski resort extension of Blaine County not because of Native populations.

Wallace’s best non-slave state county was Nye County, Nevada where he got over twenty-seven percent. As with Custer, although there are some Native populations, I do not suspect that’s the reason, but rather a strong tradition of antiestablishment populism. Both Perot in 1992 and La Follette in 1924 (who won the county) exceeded Wallace’s 1968 Nye percentage.

[cinyc]

By my estimates, Wallace received 22.3% of the vote in current-day Denali Borough, 19.8% in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area and 18.9% in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska.  He also received 16.5% of the vote in Haines and a little over 15% in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area and Fairbanks North Star and Matanuska-Susitna boroughs.

[Dr. MB]

He broke 20% in two Idaho counties, Custer County and Lemhi County.

I’ve noticed that too. Custer was one of only three counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy and then Goldwater. Even at over seventy percent Republican countywide today, the west of Custer County votes Democratic – though I presume that’s as a ski resort extension of Blaine County not because of Native populations.

Wallace’s best non-slave state county was Nye County, Nevada where he got over twenty-seven percent. As with Custer, although there are some Native populations, I do not suspect that’s the reason, but rather a strong tradition of antiestablishment populism. Both Perot in 1992 and La Follette in 1924 (who won the county) exceeded Wallace’s 1968 Nye percentage.

Some rural Idaho counties also gave an unusually high percent to John Schmitz (‘72), Lester Maddox (‘76) and Bo Gritz (‘92).

Schmitz got 27% in Jefferson County, ID, double McGovern’s percentage.

[mianfei]

He broke 20% in two Idaho counties, Custer County and Lemhi County.

I’ve noticed that too. Custer was one of only three counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy and then Goldwater. Even at over seventy percent Republican countywide today, the west of Custer County votes Democratic – though I presume that’s as a ski resort extension of Blaine County not because of Native populations.

Wallace’s best non-slave state county was Nye County, Nevada where he got over twenty-seven percent. As with Custer, although there are some Native populations, I do not suspect that’s the reason, but rather a strong tradition of antiestablishment populism. Both Perot in 1992 and La Follette in 1924 (who won the county) exceeded Wallace’s 1968 Nye percentage.

Some rural Idaho counties also gave an unusually high percent to John Schmitz (‘72), Lester Maddox (‘76) and Bo Gritz (‘92).

Schmitz got 27% in Jefferson County, ID, double McGovern’s percentage.

Those counties – indeed the entire rural northern Interior Plateau including Colorado’s West Slope and eastern Oregon – have always had histories of extreme racism, as James Löwen showed in his book Sundown Towns back in 2005. It dates back really to their support for the anti-immigration populism of William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

When it was believed strongly enough that the government would give nothing whatsoever to black people, these showed themselves willing to vote for more liberal economics, as happened during the New Deal era. However, ever since the Civil Rights Act, far-right politics is almost ubiquitous in much of this area.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

He broke 20% in two Idaho counties, Custer County and Lemhi County.

I’ve noticed that too. Custer was one of only three counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy and then Goldwater. Even at over seventy percent Republican countywide today, the west of Custer County votes Democratic – though I presume that’s as a ski resort extension of Blaine County not because of Native populations.

Wallace’s best non-slave state county was Nye County, Nevada where he got over twenty-seven percent. As with Custer, although there are some Native populations, I do not suspect that’s the reason, but rather a strong tradition of antiestablishment populism. Both Perot in 1992 and La Follette in 1924 (who won the county) exceeded Wallace’s 1968 Nye percentage.

Some rural Idaho counties also gave an unusually high percent to John Schmitz (‘72), Lester Maddox (‘76) and Bo Gritz (‘92).

Schmitz got 27% in Jefferson County, ID, double McGovern’s percentage.

Those counties – indeed the entire rural northern Interior Plateau including Colorado’s West Slope and eastern Oregon – have always had histories of extreme racism, as James Löwen showed in his book Sundown Towns back in 2005. It dates back really to their support for the anti-immigration populism of William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

When it was believed strongly enough that the government would give nothing whatsoever to black people, these showed themselves willing to vote for more liberal economics, as happened during the New Deal era. However, ever since the Civil Rights Act, far-right politics is almost ubiquitous in much of this area.

Why did you necro this?

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

In Indiana his best counties were Morgan, Lake, and Porter. He got 16-18 percent in these counties. porter and Lake are in the region, the chicago suburbs and exurbs, so there was probably some racial tension. Morgan is a county in central Indiana that has long been associated with racism and the KKK.

Just want to clarify the points about Lake and Porter: in the 1960s these counties were less suburbs of Chicago so much as they were suburbs of cities like Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago, which all had much larger populations and industrial bases than today. Porter County is unique in that the big steel mills are not actually near any major city like U.S. Steel in Gary or Inland was in East Chicago, but rather along the shoreline in a relatively sparsely-populated area

From the 1910s to 1970s Gary and East Chicago in particular attracted huge numbers of poor whites from Appalachia and the South, along with huge numbers of blacks. Add this on top of the huge ethnic southern/central European populations that had immigrated between the 1880s and 1920s and you've got a mix for nasty racial tensions.

There was pretty extreme white flight from Gary and East Chicago in the 1950s - 1970s era, but overall population didn't decline very sharply due to the huge influx of southern blacks. A good illustration of these tensions is the Gary mayoral election of 1967, which foreshadowed major defections of white middle and working class voters in 1968 and 1972 to Wallace and Nixon. Lots of white Democratic voters defected to the Republican candidate and the Lake County Democratic Party actively undermined their own black mayoral candidate (Richard Hatcher), and the police were accused of voter intimidation and sabotaging voting machines. In the end he won, and Gary became a majority-black city around 1968, and massive white flight took place in the 60s and 70s to suburbs like Merrillville and Crown Point.

The eastern portion of Lake County and much of northern Porter County had (and to some degree still does have) pretty bad racial dynamics akin to the South. The western portion of Lake County was more suburbs of Hammond and the south side of Chicago, and had a more diversified economic base and less racial tensions. Hammond actually was majority non-Hispanic white until 2000 with only about a 15-20% black population; much like other areas with light industry, it's become more Hispanic now.

It's the steel producing areas of the south side of Chicago and NW Indiana that seemed to have the worst racial tensions and worst declines.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Working-class union democrats who don't really care too much about social issues but feel oppressed by the man. Hunter S. Thompson wrote about them in his Book Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Working-class union democrats who don't really care too much about social issues but feel oppressed by the man. Hunter S. Thompson wrote about them in his Book Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72

[DabbingSanta]

Wallace had strong support in rural western Texas in the Midland-Odessa area. He won Loving, Crane, Glasscock, and Martin counties. Not totally sure the reasoning behind this.  Any thoughts?

[VPH]

Wallace had strong support in rural western Texas in the Midland-Odessa area. He won Loving, Crane, Glasscock, and Martin counties. Not totally sure the reasoning behind this.  Any thoughts?

Outside the South, he performed well in parts of the country settled by Southerners earlier in history. In fact when you map them, Wallace's 1968 central-west Texas percentages line up well with cotton production.