Why is Buncombe County North Carolina Blue?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

It is a huge anomaly. It is the only county in the North Carolina Appalachia Region that is blue, with there being only one battleground county in the region called Watauga, but that comes as no surprise since out of 55,000ish residents, more than 19,000 are college students at the appalachia state university. But the rest of the area is ruby red. And buncombe county, around 250,000 people in it, centered around the city of asheville with around 85,000ish residents in it. There are no major colleges in the county, the county is also over 85% white, and not regular white, but appalachian whites who tend to vote overwhelmingly republican. Minorities only make up around 15%ish of the county, so there is not a huge minority presence there either. And even though bigger cities are more liberal, even amongst white populations who live in them,  the county essentially has a large town, and then the rest of the population is just centered around it in suburban and rural areas. It just makes absolutely no sense to me how this county trends democratic. Does anybody have any answers?

[TDAS04]

Asheville has a high concentration of hippies and "new age"-type people.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Asheville has a high concentration of hippies and "new age"-type people.

Thanks

[Skill and Chance]

Asheville has a high concentration of hippies and "new age"-type people.

Thanks

You can think of it as the Appalachian answer to Boulder, CO (relative to its surroundings, not in absolute left/right terms).

[Beet]

It's one of those places. Asheville, Austin, Athens, Ann Arbor, Madison, Boulder, etc.

[Mr. Smith]

Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.


 

[nclib]

Asheville is also very artsy. Plus, being the largest city in the area helps. Warren Wilson College in Asheville was once rated one of the most liberal colleges in the nation.

Interestingly however, despite Asheville's liberalism, Buncombe voted Republican as recently as 2004.

[Sol]

Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.


 

UNC-Asheville is quite tiny though; less than 4,000 undergrads--not enough do much voting-wise.

OP forgot the other swing county in Western NC--Jackson. Of course, it voted for Trump but it was closer than Watauga in 2012. Blame Hillary's collapse among natives for that.

[Tintrlvr]

Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.


 

UNC-Asheville is quite tiny though; less than 4,000 undergrads--not enough do much voting-wise.

OP forgot the other swing county in Western NC--Jackson. Of course, it voted for Trump but it was closer than Watauga in 2012. Blame Hillary's collapse among natives for that.

Jackson County is only 10% Native, and, e.g., neighboring Haywood County that is less than 1% Native swung harder towards Trump.

[Sol]

Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.


 

UNC-Asheville is quite tiny though; less than 4,000 undergrads--not enough do much voting-wise.

OP forgot the other swing county in Western NC--Jackson. Of course, it voted for Trump but it was closer than Watauga in 2012. Blame Hillary's collapse among natives for that.

Jackson County is only 10% Native, and, e.g., neighboring Haywood County that is less than 1% Native swung harder towards Trump.

Well, yeah. But the Democratic base in Jackson county is Western Carolina and the part of the Qualla Boundary in the county--so a decline in the Democratic vote and turnout among natives when a county is around 49-51 is of course going to hurt the Democrats. Trump actually won the Cherokee majority precinct in Jackson County, though not the Swain one. The Jackson County one is only barely native majority though--so Clinton probably still won the Cherokee there.

Haywood County is old industrial towns with some outer Asheville commuters, and traditionally has a Blue Dog constituency. Not the sort of place to like Hillary.

[Tintrlvr]

Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.


 

UNC-Asheville is quite tiny though; less than 4,000 undergrads--not enough do much voting-wise.

OP forgot the other swing county in Western NC--Jackson. Of course, it voted for Trump but it was closer than Watauga in 2012. Blame Hillary's collapse among natives for that.

Jackson County is only 10% Native, and, e.g., neighboring Haywood County that is less than 1% Native swung harder towards Trump.

Well, yeah. But the Democratic base in Jackson county is Western Carolina and the part of the Qualla Boundary in the county--so a decline in the Democratic vote and turnout among natives when a county is around 49-51 is of course going to hurt the Democrats. Trump actually won the Cherokee majority precinct in Jackson County, though not the Swain one. The Jackson County one is only barely native majority though--so Clinton probably still won the Cherokee there.

Haywood County is old industrial towns with some outer Asheville commuters, and traditionally has a Blue Dog constituency. Not the sort of place to like Hillary.

Point was that Jackson County largely swung for reasons other than Native Americans.

[VPH]

What explains the Clinton performance in Brevard?

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

What explains the Clinton performance in Brevard?

IIRC it has a decent sized collage.

[jimrtex]

What explains the Clinton performance in Brevard?

Vampires.