Super wealthy towns that heavily swung against Donald Trump

[🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼]

It's amazing how terrible Donald Trump did in wealthy towns. There are so many wealthy towns that went from overwhelmingly voting for Romney to overwhelmingly voting for Hillary. Here are some interesting results in extremely wealthy towns I want to share with you guys:

Darien, CT

Median annual household income: $272,365

2012:
Romney: 65.39%
Obama: 34.42%

2016:
Clinton: 52.75%
Trump: 41.06%

Greenwhich, CT

Median annual household income: $246,106

2012:
Romney: 55.24%
Obama: 43.90%

2016:
Clinton: 56.49%
Trump: 39.14%

New Canaan, CT

Median annual household income: $283,718

2012:
Romney: 64.13%
Obama: 35.02%

2016:
Clinton: 52.59%
Trump: 41.41%

Atherton, CA

Median annual household income: "Over $250k" according to US Census
$1,063,888 according to CNNMoney.
The median income here is in the 7 figures by some estimates.


2012:
Romney: 51.5%
Obama: 46.6%

2016:
Clinton: 64.8%
Trump: 27.5%

I found this result to be the most amazing. Atherton is EXTREMELY wealthy.

Weston, MA

Median annual household income: $230,000+

2012:
Obama: 51.23%
Romney: 47.45%

2016:
Clinton: 66.36%
Trump: 25.04%

East Greenwhich, RI

Median annual household income: $190,221

2012:
Romney: 49.93%
Obama: 48.37%

2016:
Clinton: 52.27%
Trump: 40.60%

Woodside, CA:

Median annual household income: $246,042

2012:
Obama: 54.1%
Romney: 43.5%

2016:
Clinton: 68.4%
Trump: 24.8%




I'm posting this because I found it amazing how many towns went from voting for Romney by double digits to voting for Hillary by double digits. This just proves that Donald Trump was really toxic to wealthy voters.

[🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼]

Woodside, CA:

Median annual household income: $246,042

I don't have 2012 data,  but I'm going to assume that it narrowly voted for Romney

2016:
Clinton: 57.2%
Trump: 21.8%

According to the San Mateo SoV, she did a bit better than that

2016:
Clinton: 68.4%
Trump: 24.8%

2012:
Obama: 54.1%
Romney: 43.5%

2008:
Obama: 63.6%
McCain: 35.2%

It turns out my data for Woodside was before all the votes were officially counted. Thanks for the info!
Donald Trump getting crushed in Woodside is not surprising, but I'm surprised that Woodside also voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Despite the fact that the town is very wealthy, it seems that it has always been overwhelmingly Democratic.

[🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼]

It's important to note that not all of these towns were staunchly Republican before Donald Trump.

Atherton, CA is an extremely wealthy town that only narrowly voted for Romney in 2012 and overwhelmingy voted for Obama in 2008. The median household income in Atherton is in the 7 figures by some estimates ($1 million+ a year)

2008 Atherton Results
Obama 57.6%
McCain 41.1%

2012 Atherton Results
Romney 51.5%
Obama 46.6%

2016 Atherton Results
Clinton: 64.8%
Trump: 27.5%

Also, it's important to note that most of the cities voted for Obama in 2008 as well.

I think people forget how well Obama did 2008 with wealthy voters.

Obama won voters making $200k+ by 6 points in 2008 and lost voters making $250k+ in 2012 by around 10 points. A 16 point swing!

Most of the towns I listed in the OP voted for pretty overwhelmingly Obama in 2008, overwhelmingly for Romney in 2012, and overwhelmingly for Hillary 2016.

I think this proves my theory that wealthy voters are very elastic. Most of these towns saw huge swings between 2008-2012-2016.

Voting for Obama 2008-Romney 2012-Clinton 2016 seemed to be norm for wealthy voters

Obama did very well with wealthy voters in 2008 due to the Great Recession and Bush's unpopularity

However, they overwhelmingly voted for Romney in 2012 due to Obama's proposals to massively raise taxes on the rich, increase regulations, etc

However, Hillary did very well with wealthy voters in 2016 due to Trump's stances on trade/globalization/immigration (polls have shown that wealthy voters are overwhelmingly pro-immigration and see more immigration as a huge positive for our country), Trump's behavior, his gaffes, his extremism and the fact that he was perceived as a "nutjob" by many affluent voters, his unpredictability, etc

I disagree with this notion that this the only election where Democrats could win wealthy voters. I think you guys are forget that Obama did better with wealthy voters in 2008 than Clinton did in 2016. A lot of the towns I mentioned heavily voted for Obama in 2008, heavily voted for Romney in 2012, and heavily voted for Hillary in 2016.

Although I do agree with the notion that the other GOP candidates (except for Cruz) would've probably easily won most of these towns against Hillary. Donald Trump was probably the worst possible fit for affluent voters.

[🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼]

In the long term, I think wealthy voters will continue to trend D

Yes, he was about the worst possible candidate for them.

True, but I think these places are trending D in the long term anyway.

I know you think that.  I know Eharding thinks that.  I struggle to see why, though.  There will ALWAYS be a high floor in these places for a Republican as long as the GOP is asking for more "pro-rich" policies than the Democrats are; do you honestly see that flipping?  Ever?  Even if you believe that the GOP is going full Trumpist in EVERY geographic area for decades (unlikely in my opinion, especially given that Trumpist GOPers tend to be older and in shrinking areas of the country, but whatever), there is at least as much evidence that the Democratic Party will continue to move to the left economically with millenials becoming more prominent in the party.

Because at some point, the anti-intellectual/professional vibes that are prevalent among the GOP's base and elected officials begin to outweigh the benefits of a lower tax bracket.

^^^

Most polls have shown that the wealthy are becoming more on liberal in economic issues (although a majority still hold conservative views on economic issues)

Also, the wealthy tend to be very socially liberal and are turned off by the anti-immigration, anti-professional/intellectual, anti-globalization, anti-gay marriage, and anti-science rhetoric coming from the GOP.

Many wealthy people don't mind paying an extra 3% in taxes if it means voting for candidates who align with them on social issues.

And many wealthy voters hold liberal economic views and don't support cutting social programs that help the poor, support increasing the minimum wage, etc. Also, some wealthy voters find the GOP's "deficit hawk" additude to be a turn-off. Many of these people support more infrastructure spending and government investment in the economy. For example, most major businesses are huge supporters of more infrastructure spending and government investment in the economy, which the GOP doesn't want. Many wealthy voters don't mind paying a 2%-3% in taxes if it means voting for candidates who align with them on most other issues.

Let's dispel with this fiction that all wealthy voters are economically conservative. A majority are, but there are still plenty on wealthy voters who hold liberal economic views.

But yes, the main reason why these wealthy communities swung so heavily D is because Trump was the nominee.