Counties for both Goldwater and Kerry

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyone got a map?

[Rob]

I'm actually making one. Will be done soon- there aren't a whole lot.

[Rob]

Done.

No real surprises. Only four non-southern counties flipped: Mono and Alpine in California, Teton in Wyoming, and Whiteside in Illinois.

[Alcon]

Whiteside in Illinois.

Hmm.  I wonder why?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

By the looks of it, it was traditionally Republican (and then some; before 1992 it had never voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate; it was very close in '64 though and close in '88) but took a turn towards the Democrats in the late '80's. It's a manufacturing area, so maybe job losses triggered the change in voting patterns?

[Alcon]

By the looks of it, it was traditionally Republican (and then some; before 1992 it had never voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate; it was very close in '64 though and close in '88) but took a turn towards the Democrats in the late '80's. It's a manufacturing area, so maybe job losses triggered the change in voting patterns?

The unemployment rate there isn't astoundingly high, and is pretty much level since 1990.  Hmm.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's possible that lost jobs were replaced with lower order jobs of some kind; that's happend in a lot of areas that used to be dependent on defense patronage during the Cold War (no idea if that's the case in this area though).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Broward and Palm Beach counties are very interesting. They both voted overwhelmingly for Kerry but voted for Goldwater and were voting Republican as recent as 1988.

Now that I look it up, Clinton in 92 was the first Democrat to carry Palm Beach since 1944. Carter won Broward in 76, but otherwise it's the same deal. And  now both are the two most reliably Democratic counties in Florida (other than the black areas in the panhandle)

[minionofmidas]

(other than the black areas in the panhandle)

Neither Jefferson nor Leon is a "black area". They are 30-odd% Black, to be precise.

[Joe Republic]

A while ago I did some research of my own and discovered a number of counties (I think it was only about three in the whole country) that voted for Goldwater, McGovern and Mondale.

[Cubby]

Whiteside in Illinois.

Hmm.  I wonder why?

Whiteside County contains the town of Tampico, where Ronald Reagan was born. Reagan was an enthusiastic campaigner for Goldwater in 1964.

On another note, Illinois as a whole appears to have been Goldwater's second best Northern State (after IN). He won most of rural and suburban Northern Illinois, even while losing traditional hyper-Republican areas in rural PA, MI and Ohio. I wonder why.

[Nym90]

A while ago I did some research of my own and discovered a number of counties (I think it was only about three in the whole country) that voted for Goldwater, McGovern and Mondale.

I assume they were all majority black counties in the deep South, and thus were counties in which blacks largely couldn't vote in 1964 but thus went strongly Democratic once blacks got the vote.

[Rob]

A while ago I did some research of my own and discovered a number of counties (I think it was only about three in the whole country) that voted for Goldwater, McGovern and Mondale.

I assume they were all majority black counties in the deep South, and thus were counties in which blacks largely couldn't vote in 1964 but thus went strongly Democratic once blacks got the vote.

The counties are: West Feliciana in Louisiana (technically a parish); Holmes, Claiborne, and Jefferson in Mississippi; and Sumter, Greene, Wilcox, Lowndes, and Bullock in Alabama.