Why was Rhode Island so close?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This one is a mystery to me. Trump even won a county there, which no Republican has been able to do since Reagan.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

[RFayette]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

[catographer]

Same reason Trump did so much better in non-college educated and working class white parts of New England and New York.

[BaldEagle1991]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

They had hardcore Christian running mates

[dirks]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

No...but they had no personality. Lifeless candidates who ran lifeless campaigns in political climates that didn't favor them

[Adam Griffin]

I hate to say "MUH WORKING CLASS WHITES", but RI probably has more of them than any other electoral jurisdiction in the Northeast (save for maybe ME-2). It's also poorer than most of the NE.

[Lothal1]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

They had hardcore Christian running mates

No correlation at all here. (Pence) It's because of Trump's economic populism.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This one is a mystery to me. Trump even won a county there, which no Republican has been able to do since Reagan.

Trump won a county in every New England state, except for Massachusetts.

[TDAS04]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

This is not true.

Most socially liberal, well-educated areas trended Democratic.  Take a look at Massachusetts, the West Coast, the D.C. Metro, and numerous college towns.  Hillary also performed very well in traditionally Republican but socially moderate areas like suburban Chicago.

Trump meanwhile achieved record performance among white Evangelicals (never mind that Trump may not be sincerely religious himself).  He also overperformed among culturally conservative Democrats, which is why he turned so many rural counties Republican.

2016 clearly widened the urban-rural, social liberal-social conservative divide. 

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

By Atlas standards, 99% of people who lived before the year 2000 would be considered theocrats.  In 30 years, views that are considered normal now will be labeled as "theocratic."

[Bismarck]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

This is not true.

Most socially liberal, well-educated areas trended Democratic.  Take a look at Massachusetts, the West Coast, the D.C. Metro, and numerous college towns.  Hillary also performed very well in traditionally Republican but socially moderate areas like suburban Chicago.

Trump meanwhile achieved record performance among white Evangelicals (never mind that Trump may not be sincerely religious himself).  He also overperformed among culturally conservative Democrats, which is why he turned so many rural counties Republican.

2016 clearly widened the urban-rural, social liberal-social conservative divide. 

Yes but most people living in the rural/ small city northeast as well as large amounts of the Midwest are not evangelicals. Many social moderates in these areas even if they don't have degrees we're turned off by the GOP's southern flavored evangelism. Many working class whites especially outside of the south are fairly secular (just like a lot of college educated whites in the south and Midwest are very religious)

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

This is not true.

Most socially liberal, well-educated areas trended Democratic.  Take a look at Massachusetts, the West Coast, the D.C. Metro, and numerous college towns.  Hillary also performed very well in traditionally Republican but socially moderate areas like suburban Chicago.

Trump meanwhile achieved record performance among white Evangelicals (never mind that Trump may not be sincerely religious himself).  He also overperformed among culturally conservative Democrats, which is why he turned so many rural counties Republican.

2016 clearly widened the urban-rural, social liberal-social conservative divide. 

Yes but most people living in the rural/ small city northeast as well as large amounts of the Midwest are not evangelicals. Many social moderates in these areas even if they don't have degrees we're turned off by the GOP's southern flavored evangelism. Many working class whites especially outside of the south are fairly secular (just like a lot of college educated whites in the south and Midwest are very religious)

The Republican party has been increasingly Southernized and socially conservative over the last 30-40 years.  That certainly helps them in the bible belt, but it has repelled a lot of voters. All of a sudden the Republicans nominate a big city Yankee from NYC who has not pandered to the religious right. Hillary Clinton, who is a mainstream Methodist, was more religious than Trump. People knew that Trump did not care much or at all about abortion or gay rights. The Republican leaders' holy book is the Art of the Deal, not the bible. This was a pretty revolutionary perception change that helped Republicans in the North.

[nclib]

Rhode Island has a disproportionately high number of culturally conservative Democrats. This is why RI was the last state in New England to recognize gay marriage.

[Arbitrage1980]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

I agree with this, except that Trump did worse than prior GOP nominees in the west coast. He lost CA by 30 points, the biggest margin since Alfred Landon 1936.

[NOVA Green]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

This is not true.

Most socially liberal, well-educated areas trended Democratic.  Take a look at Massachusetts, the West Coast, the D.C. Metro, and numerous college towns.  Hillary also performed very well in traditionally Republican but socially moderate areas like suburban Chicago.

Trump meanwhile achieved record performance among white Evangelicals (never mind that Trump may not be sincerely religious himself).  He also overperformed among culturally conservative Democrats, which is why he turned so many rural counties Republican.

2016 clearly widened the urban-rural, social liberal-social conservative divide. 

Yes but most people living in the rural/ small city northeast as well as large amounts of the Midwest are not evangelicals. Many social moderates in these areas even if they don't have degrees we're turned off by the GOP's southern flavored evangelism. Many working class whites especially outside of the south are fairly secular (just like a lot of college educated whites in the south and Midwest are very religious)

St Alphonso is on the money here...

Most people living in rural and small town America (Outside of the Deep South and certain parts of the border states) are not evangelicals.

Where I currently live and work in "Deer Hunter" (Reference to the movie, check it out of you haven't yet) country are much more motivated by basic issues such as steady and decent paying employment to help support their family, and religion is pretty much the only item I haven't heard discussed out in the smoking area....

I am still extremely skeptical about this whole argument regarding Trump and Rhode Island (Let alone anywhere else in the country) over-preforming as a result of the evangelical vote.

Last time I checked it was "the economy stupid" and a sense of relative deprivation between rural and Metro America when it came to the economic recovery after the Great Recession.

[136or142]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

Ah yes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were well-known "Christian theocrats."

No...but they had no personality. Lifeless candidates who ran lifeless campaigns in political climates that didn't favor them

Bob Dole is a very funny person.  Maybe he didn't show that enough in 1996.  I remember at the 1988 Republican Convention in his speech he said "America doesn't need Michael Dukakis and his Dukakied ideas."

That made me laugh.

[hopper]

This one is a mystery to me. Trump even won a county there, which no Republican has been able to do since Reagan.

Trump won a county in every New England state, except for Massachusetts.

A Republican Presidential Candidate hasn't carried a county in MA since 1988 with Bush H.W.

[NerdyBohemian]

Rhode Island has more in common with the rust belt than the rest of New England.

[rhody]

Been a lurker here for a while. Thought I'd comment (although it's mostly been answered)!
RI has similar demographics to Massachusetts but with more Italians, Catholics (more socially conservative) and fewer wealthy areas (meaning it was more receptive of Trump's economic populism). Extremely Italian mid-size middle/working class towns like Johnston and West Warwick managed to vote for Trump after voting for Obama by huge margins because of this. Then there's the WASP factor (White anglo-saxon protestant, think ME-02 or eastern Connecticut) that voted for Trump in huge margins, that you don't see too much in Massachusetts but is common in western and southern Rhode Island.
These differences are also why RI voted for Bernie in the primary while Mass voted for Hillary.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Republicans love to stereotype the Northeast as a region filled with Coastal Elitist Latte Liberals,which is false.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Trump did much better with poor whites. Also see Maine.

[hopper]

Republicans love to stereotype the Northeast as a region filled with Coastal Elitist Latte Liberals,which is false.

Well Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York City have latte liberals. Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, and NOVA are just Center-Left. New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are Purple States.

[hopper]

Trump did much better with poor whites. Also see Maine.

This past Election was about a  little more about Trumps winning margins Non-College Whites vs College Educated Whites rather than just about singularly income.

[Fuzzy Stands With His Friend, Chairman Sanchez]

Trump was the first Republican nominee since Ford or H.W Bush who was not a hard line Christian theocrat. This certainly helped in the Upper Midwest, West Coast, Northeast and especially New England, which have been disgusted by GOP social Conservatism.

This is not true.

Most socially liberal, well-educated areas trended Democratic.  Take a look at Massachusetts, the West Coast, the D.C. Metro, and numerous college towns.  Hillary also performed very well in traditionally Republican but socially moderate areas like suburban Chicago.

Trump meanwhile achieved record performance among white Evangelicals (never mind that Trump may not be sincerely religious himself).  He also overperformed among culturally conservative Democrats, which is why he turned so many rural counties Republican.

2016 clearly widened the urban-rural, social liberal-social conservative divide. 

Hillary Clinton, while not an economic progressive, personifies the concept of an "enemy of the church".  Christians recognized that Hillary's Justice Department would do everything it could to force churches to perform same-sex marriages and hire gays in ministry positions, regardless of what Scripture says.  Part of the WikiLeaks revelations included Podesta and Palmieri talking about a "Catholic Spring" where liberals would actually infiltrate the Catholic Church and seek to change its doctrines.  Her "deplorables" comment didn't help, either.  Trump is not my idea of a devout Christian, but he is willing to leave the Church alone and not force every secular doctrine on it.

New England as a whole has become the Solid Northeast because of the resistance to the Religious Right in the GOP.  Trump cooled this somewhat, but what made this worse for Democrats was the hostility Christians feel toward Hillary.  This is something Hillary brought on all by herself.