Socially liberal rural areas

[nclib]

Other than Vermont and some ski resorts in the Mountain West, can anyone think of any?

[RRB]

Based on voting records, the Upper Penninsula of MI is very Dem.  There was a brief period when gun issues took some Democrat votes, but things appear to be heading back toward the Democrats.  2006 saw Granholm winning every county.

Northern WI and MN are very Dem too.  The entire lake Superior area.

It must be mentioned that saying that these areas "socially" liberal may be a streach.  A little more to do with labor and poverty.  These people see republicans as elite high brows who don't relate to their way of life.  Or, at least that's what a Yupper once told me.

I live in an rural area in central MI where if it were not for gerrymandering, we would have a single party Dem representation.  Lots of roughnecks in big trucks with dead dear in the back that still sport Kerry and Granholm bumper stickers.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Various other places in New England, NY state, and California.

Western Massachusetts is probably the best example.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Northern Minnesota isn't that socially liberal (except for the cities), although they aren't fans of the religious right or extreme social conservatism.

Southern Minnesota has some though (see that little strip of red counties running across the Iowa border?), as does Iowa.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

BRTD your definition of liberal is to the left of the dems. Try again.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Let's speak in relative terms.

Northern Minnesota is pretty socially liberal when compared to other rural areas of the country. 

Last November, my local state house race was between a socially libertarian, fiscally liberal DFLer and a local pastor Republican that made gay marriage and abortion his two big campaign issues.  The DFLer got 65% of the vote. 

A lot of that is simply because people here don't want to mix religion with politics and place a lot more importance on bread and butter issues.  The area is overwhelmingly ELCA Lutheran, which is quite liberal, and that makes a huge difference.

Also, northern Minnesota really does not like Pawlenty.  My county went for Hatch 50-42 and Pawlenty won by 0.9% statewide, but is governing as if he won in a landslide.

[Hatman 🍁]

I assume norther MN, WI and MI are like Northern Ontario. If so, their only real main conservative issue is guns.

[Alcon]

I assume norther MN, WI and MI are like Northern Ontario. If so, their only real main conservative issue is guns.

Not really.  The U.S. political dynamic is a little different.

There are plenty of socially liberal rural areas.  The ones you mentioned are some of the few areas where entire counties encompass them, though.

I have no idea what part of rural Iowa would be considered socially liberal.

But just because an area is populist and union doesn't mean it isn't also socially liberal.  There's a copper mining town in the Cascade Mountains that votes heavily for gay rights, drug legalization and abortion rights whenever those issues come up.

[Joe Biden 2020]

What about rural areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut outside the suburbs of Boston, Providence, Hartford, and New York City?

Also, how about rural Oregon, seeing the state is mostly rural outside Portland, Eugene, and Medford.  That means everything east of I-5 to the Idaho border is pretty rural and, to my knowledge, liberal.

[Kevin]

I assume norther MN, WI and MI are like Northern Ontario. If so, their only real main conservative issue is guns.

Not really.  The U.S. political dynamic is a little different.

There are plenty of socially liberal rural areas.  The ones you mentioned are some of the few areas where entire counties encompass them, though.

I have no idea what part of rural Iowa would be considered socially liberal.

But just because an area is populist and union doesn't mean it isn't also socially liberal.  There's a copper mining town in the Cascade Mountains that votes heavily for gay rights, drug legalization and abortion rights whenever those issues come up.

There are alot of rural parts of Upstate New York that are pretty soically liberal too. Also parts of the Rockies are pretty liberal too going with the tradition in the area of keeping the goverment out of people's lives.   

[Alcon]

Also, how about rural Oregon, seeing the state is mostly rural outside Portland, Eugene, and Medford.  That means everything east of I-5 to the Idaho border is pretty rural and, to my knowledge, liberal.

Well...parts of Bend, Ore., are liberal.  That pretty much covers it for eastern Oregon social liberalness.



There are a few socially liberal parts of rural Oregon, mostly around the coast and in Hood River County.  A few liberal areas on the outskirts of liberal towns like Ashland also qualify.

Beyond that, rural Oregon is pretty uniformly socially conservative, and pretty hardcore Republican.

Here is, for reference, the gay marriage ban map:



No surprises here - the only rural county to vote for Kerry (Columbia) tends to lean conservative on social issues.  It's a union place.

Under >60 counties are: Clatsop (Astoria - small town liberals), Washington (Portland suburbs), Hood River (Hood River - small town hippie liberals), Lincoln (ocean beach resort town liberals) and Lane (Eugene - University of Oregon).

Here's parental notification on abortions, which failed 55%-45%.



As you can see, the Columbia River counties have some libertarian tendencies.  But eastern Oregon is still quite socially conservative.

[Verily]

Let's see...

-rural Vermont
-rural New Hampshire (votes for Republicans on economic issues, though the south is probably less socially liberal than the north)
-rural Maine (guns are an issue in the really empty areas in the north, but otherwise liberal)
-the Berkshires (that would be western Massachusetts)
-much of the Hudson Valley (especially New Paltz, though that's a college town)
-the UP of Michigan, and northern Wisconsin and Minnesota (again, guns are an issue)
-the entire Pacific Coast, urban or rural, from Los Angeles north

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Here's parental notification on abortions, which failed 55%-45%.

Interesting that it was relatively close (either way) in most counties.

[Alcon]

Interesting that it was relatively close (either way) in most counties.

The Pacific Northwest tends to work that way.

Suburbanites oftentimes vote more marginally on social issues.  Contrary to popular belief, suburbs aren't totally libertarian, here.  They have socially protectionist elements to them.  They certainly aren't socially conservative around here, but I'm not sure I'd call them socially liberal either.  It's more complicated.

Our 1998 partial-birth abortion ban turned out not-dissimilarly:

[nclib]

-the UP of Michigan

Didn't Bush actually win this in 2004? (I know Bush won MI-1, which includes the entire UP, but I'm not sure how the rest of the district voted.)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

-the UP of Michigan

Didn't Bush actually win this in 2004? (I know Bush won MI-1, which includes the entire UP, but I'm not sure how the rest of the district voted.)

Yes he did. Pretty convincingly as well (EDIT: for a Republican)

[Joe Biden 2020]

There are probably VERY few socially liberal regions in the US, in the truest sence of the word.

Now lets name the socially liberal urban areas...

Let's start a new thread for that, so we don't get accused of "hijacking"

[Colin]

I would say social liberal rural areas are mostly confined to Vermont, some parts of Southern and Eastern New Hampshire, Western Massachusetts, more rural areas of Rhode Island and some coastal counties in California such as Mendecino and Humboldt. Rural Maine really isn't all that socially liberal and they stand more near the ideological centre than leaning either direction, combine that with ethnic groups, such as French-Canadians, who have been voting Democratic, IIRC, for at least thirty years. The UP, upper Wisconsin, and Minnesota are not exactly as socially conservative as other rural areas in the Midwest and the Plains but most of their focus is on economic populism and I think the average voter in those areas, on the whole, is still more socially conservative than the average American.

As for the ski counties in the Mountain West I wouldn't say that they would count since their socially liberal political leanings come from urban transplants who have moved into those areas in recent years and not to any established trend among the actual rural population of those counties.

[Verily]

-the UP of Michigan

Didn't Bush actually win this in 2004? (I know Bush won MI-1, which includes the entire UP, but I'm not sure how the rest of the district voted.)

Most of it. Its politics are kind of hard to predict, and it certainly wasn't voting on economic issues. The UP strikes me as mostly pro-incumbent, much like Hawaii.

[jokerman]

A more difficult question is are there any traditional, blue collar rural areas that are socially liberal.

[CultureKing]

well, here in washington the Olympic Penninsula is pretty liberal, also the western Washington counties south of Olympia are pretty liberal (with the BIG exception of Lewis county)
In Arizona there seem to be a few places, also in Colorado and New Mexico

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

If you want sparsely populated rural Mormon counties that are socially liberal, I nominate: Alpine and Mono counties in eastern California. Inyo also came along for the ride. Note that some of the coastal counties are somewhat rural, too.

Parental notification try #1 Prop 73 2005


Some other rural counties joined for defeating
Parental notification try #2 Prop 85 2006


I can't think of any other Prop. that was on the ballot multiple times.

[RRB]

When one looks at a map showing that Bush won most of the counties in the UP, one has to remember that the counties where Gore/Kerry won are where most of the people live.  The Bush counties often had not much more than 1,000 people voting, and it was so close that one family made the difference between red and blue on the national county map.  I remember seeing once that even one populated county (Delta) was won by Bush by not many more people than could fit at you dinner table.  Now that's close.

[Verily]

I'm not sure I could fit 299 people at my dinner table.