Most democratic county vs. most republican county by state: Indiana

[bagelman]

This is basically northeast IN vs. northwest IN.

Kosciusko County voted nearly 75% for Romney and less than 23% for Obama. It's population as of 2010 was 77k and will likely reach 80k by 2020. County seat and largest city is Warsaw, named after the captial of Poland, which has a population that just reached 14k.

Lake County voted 2/3 for Obama. The county seat is Crown Point, which in the 00s grew from 19k to 27k. The largest city is Hammond (80k), which is actually shrinking (high of 111k in 1960) - it took the top spot from Gary (also 80k, was 178k in 1950) which is shrinking faster and is infamous for poverty and crime to the point where they built a McDonalds on a highway bridge above the city so hungry travelers don't have to visit the city. Both Hammond and Gary are estimated to have dropped below 80k. The population of Lake County is estimated at 490k, down from 546k in 1970.

[bagelman]

Kosciusko county for sure. Lots of nice lakes, fertile farmland, big biomed industry; not far from Fort Wayne and South Bend. Lake county is horrible. In the rest of Indiana we call the northwest corner "da region" and know that it's "full of democrats and bears fans and should be part of Illinois".

McCain likely would have won the state if that was the case.