Any Democratic rural white Southern counties left?

[SingingAnalyst]

Elliott KY, Harlan KY, Knott KY, Perry TN, and Cottle TX are gone. Any small, rural, mostly (90%+) white, Southern or Appalachian counties that went for Clinton in 2016?

[GlobeSoc]

I'm not sure about Prince Edward County, VA but it might count.

[SingingAnalyst]

I'm not sure about Prince Edward County, VA but it might count.

It's 36% Black and voted GOP in each election from 1960 through 1992 inclusive-- not what I imagined, but OK, thanks.

[This is Eharding, guys]

Not by your description. The South is solidly Republican now. Every state legislative chamber in the South is now Republican.

[Vern]

What do you consider rural?

[Matty]

North east louisiana and south east arkansas are white, rural, and dem

[Pollster]

North east louisiana and south east arkansas are white, rural, and dem

Both of these areas are heavily African American.

To the OP's question, I would say looking at Georgia is probably your best bet.

[Rookie Yinzer]

The only county I could find with a white bare majority is Baldwin County, GA that went for Hillary 49-48. Not exactly 90 percent and probably just means there is enough white Democrats to tip the county to Hillary. It is located in the poorest part of the state which may explain its lean to Dems.

[Santander]

The only county I could find with a white bare majority is Baldwin County, GA that went for Hillary 49-48. Not exactly 90 percent and probably just means there is enough white Democrats to tip the county to Hillary. It is located in the poorest part of the state which may explain its lean to Dems.

It's 43% black... the fact that Hillary got less than 50% of the vote there is actually a rather appalling performance on her part.

[Rookie Yinzer]

The only county I could find with a white bare majority is Baldwin County, GA that went for Hillary 49-48. Not exactly 90 percent and probably just means there is enough white Democrats to tip the county to Hillary. It is located in the poorest part of the state which may explain its lean to Dems.

It's 43% black... the fact that Hillary got less than 50% of the vote there is actually a rather appalling performance on her part.

The county is still majority white and whites tend to be overrepresented in relation to their population. This same county voted for Johnny Isakson 52-45 and for their Republican State Representative 54-46* so Hillary outpaced the downballot Dems in competitive races. Did the black voters ignore the other contests? Was there a quiet set of white Never-Trumpers in this county? I don't know. LOL.

*There was no Incumbent in this race.

[NOVA Green]

Here are a few White majority rural Southern counties that I found that went for HRC in '16...

AL- Russell County
MS-Oktibbeha
NC- Watauga, Pasquotank
VA- Montgomery, Albermarle (Prob doesn't classify as rural?), Prince Edward, Northampton, Surry

There are some other counties I found with a significant White plurality that voted for HRC in '16 not included in the list above.

[NOVA Green]

Here are a few White majority rural Southern counties that I found that went for HRC in '16...

AL- Russell County
MS-Oktibbeha
NC- Watauga, Pasquotank
VA- Montgomery, Albermarle (Prob doesn't classify as rural?), Prince Edward, Northampton, Surry

There are some other counties I found with a significant White plurality that voted for HRC in '16 not included in the list above.

Montgomery, Watauga, and Albemarle are home or near to several colleges, and the rest you cite are only barely white.

Sure, I realize that several of these are college areas---

Oktibbeha County MS is 58 % White and only 37% Black, although it is home to Mississippi State University, so runs into the same difficulty in terms of "rural" as several of the others on the list.

Pasquotank NC also appears to have a significant college presence as well.

Would Prince Edward County VA be the closest? (62% White- 34% Black)-  2016: 50 D- 45 R

[Hoosier_Nick]

Perry County, IN, which is rural and very homogeneous race wise, went for Obama both cycles and is Lean-D in state races. But it went for Trump bigly in '16. As the last Blue Dog county in Indiana, it's sad to see.

[SingingAnalyst]

What do you consider rural?

No medium or large cities or suburbs by most conventional definitions. No city or town over 50,000 (that may even be large; I'm from Detroit suburbs where at least a dozen suburbs are that large). Universities are OK to have in rural counties. What the census bureau would consider 60% or more rural.

It appears there were just a few holdouts in 2016, and even those are iffy.

[VPH]

Presidential level, not really. Downballot, there are still some. Woodruff County, Arkansas and Clark County, Arkansas are two examples.

[nclib]

Gadsden, FL is majority black.

Someone mentioned Russell, AL, which is 53.7% White and 41.8% Black so it has a sizeable white Dem proportion for the Deep South, or at least for Alabama.

[NOVA Green]

Gadsden, FL is majority black.

Someone mentioned Russell, AL, which is 53.7% White and 41.8% Black so it has a sizeable white Dem proportion for the Deep South, or at least for Alabama.

Yeah--- agreed that we don't really have much in the way of majority White rural counties to look at in the South that voted Dem for Pres in '16, and in some ways it might be equally interesting to try to find rural Southern counties where there are some of the highest levels of White Democratic support....

Russell County also has an interesting history as being a center of organized crime activity in the region going back to the WW II era, as a result of the proximity to a major US military base across the Georgia state line---- the infamous Phenix City, which featured prominently in the work of Southern detective writer Ace Atkins.

https://www.amazon.com/Wicked-City-Ace-Atkins/dp/1511364882

[HAnnA MArin County]

I was able to find two counties in Georgia that I think may fit the description of what the OP is looking for.

Baldwin County
Population (2010): 45,720
County Seat: Milledgeville
Demographics (2010)
54.03% Non-Hispanic White
41.26% Black
2.01% Hispanic
1.27% Asian
1.08% Multiracial
Election Results
1992: D+ 13.15
1996: D+ 10.44
2000: R+ 1.22
2004: R+ 6.41
2008: D+ 4.61
2012: D+ 5.50
2016: D+ 1.69

Liberty County
Population (2010): 63,453
County Seat: Hinesville
Demographics (2010)
42.69% Non-Hispanic White
41.00% Black
9.71% Hispanic
3.49% Multiracial
1.86% Asian
Election Results
1992: D+ 12.93
1996: D+ 17.47
2000: D+ 8.94
2004: D+ 3.81
2008: D+ 28.33
2012: D+ 30.21
2016: D+ 21.20

Again, not sure if Liberty County would be considered "rural" to some, so make what you will of it.

[SingingAnalyst]

I was able to find two counties in Georgia that I think may fit the description of what the OP is looking for.

Baldwin County
Population (2010): 45,720
County Seat: Milledgeville
Demographics (2010)
54.03% Non-Hispanic White
41.26% Black
2.01% Hispanic
1.27% Asian
1.08% Multiracial
Election Results
1992: D+ 13.15
1996: D+ 10.44
2000: R+ 1.22
2004: R+ 6.41
2008: D+ 4.61
2012: D+ 5.50
2016: D+ 1.69

Liberty County
Population (2010): 63,453
County Seat: Hinesville
Demographics (2010)
42.69% Non-Hispanic White
41.00% Black
9.71% Hispanic
3.49% Multiracial
1.86% Asian
Election Results
1992: D+ 12.93
1996: D+ 17.47
2000: D+ 8.94
2004: D+ 3.81
2008: D+ 28.33
2012: D+ 30.21
2016: D+ 21.20

Again, not sure if Liberty County would be considered "rural" to some, so make what you will of it.

Liberty County sounds pretty close. Still, 41% Black means that White voters must have preferred Trump by a large margin. Even so, a relatively small Southern county where Clinton reached well into the 30s among white voters seems like quite an achievement. Thank you all!

[nclib]

According to this thread and this map, in the Deep South the counties that have the highest Democratic performance are counties that have a solid black majority.

[Lord Admirale]

Not since Obama was nominated. The south was where McCain outperformed Bush the most. There were pockets left over from Bill Clinton and Al Gore when John Kerry ran, but those are virtually extinct.

[Adam Griffin]

Here are some maps that outline the share of whites who voted for Obama and for Clinton in 2012/2016. Note: different methodologies for the two; in my opinion, 2012 (created by me) may be a bit more optimistic than actuality and 2016 (created by reagente) may be a bit more pessimistic than actuality:

Obama's 2012 Share of White Vote by County
Clinton's 2016 Share of White Vote by County

Obviously a lot of ground was lost in 2016. Even if reagente's calculations were a bit more pessimistic than reality for Clinton, there are still no remaining rural Southern counties where a majority (or even a plurality) of whites voted Democratic.

Even in 2012 there were none, but there were a couple of dozen where more than 40% of whites voted for Obama; these were counties in western North Carolina, Central TN and Northern KY for the most part. When talking about "Southern" in a meaningful sense, it is very difficult to consider the last of those three groupings in the category (and if you really want to get technical, the other two groups are iffy as well - Appalachia's its own region in many respects when it comes to discussions like these).

Even if you do consider them Southern and even in the case of Elliot in 2012, it was an instance of Obama winning a plurality rather than a majority. If you do exclude the Southern Periphery, adhere to a fairly strict definition of "rural" on top of that and allow for plurality wins rather than outright majorities, you'd still probably have to go back to 2004 to find one or more concrete instances of this.

[Del Tachi]

What do you consider rural?

No medium or large cities or suburbs by most conventional definitions. No city or town over 50,000 (that may even be large; I'm from Detroit suburbs where at least a dozen suburbs are that large). Universities are OK to have in rural counties. What the census bureau would consider 60% or more rural.

It appears there were just a few holdouts in 2016, and even those are iffy.

Oktibbeha, MS is probably your best bet, but its no where near as White as the counties mentioned in the OP

[100% pro-life no matter what]

What do you consider rural?

No medium or large cities or suburbs by most conventional definitions. No city or town over 50,000 (that may even be large; I'm from Detroit suburbs where at least a dozen suburbs are that large). Universities are OK to have in rural counties. What the census bureau would consider 60% or more rural.

It appears there were just a few holdouts in 2016, and even those are iffy.

Oktibbeha, MS is probably your best bet, but its no where near as White as the counties mentioned in the OP

And, Griffin's map still has its whites voting 70-27 Trump.  I guess there are a few liberal professors who snuck in there or something!

[NOVA Green]

What do you consider rural?

No medium or large cities or suburbs by most conventional definitions. No city or town over 50,000 (that may even be large; I'm from Detroit suburbs where at least a dozen suburbs are that large). Universities are OK to have in rural counties. What the census bureau would consider 60% or more rural.

It appears there were just a few holdouts in 2016, and even those are iffy.

Oktibbeha, MS is probably your best bet, but its no where near as White as the counties mentioned in the OP

And, Griffin's map still has its whites voting 70-27 Trump.  I guess there are a few liberal professors who snuck in there or something!

Well, I don't know how the methodology of Griffin or Reagente used, but it is also worth noting that the non-white % of the Oktibbeha county population 0-17 is > 50%...

Meaning if one were to simply plug in Census population numbers, there would be a major distortion that would significantly understate the % of the White vote for HRC in this County, since obviously minors can't vote....

If you look at the critical 65+ age bracket it starts at 65% White (65-74) and starts climbing up to 70% (75-84) and 80% (85+).... Needless to say Seniors tend to vote at much higher levels than other age groups, especially in the South.