Fannin County, Georgia

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Why have they always been so Republican; only 1 Democrat has ever won the state, and it was Jimmy Carter.  Seriously, what is it with them?

[Hash]

It's something like 98% white IIRC.

[Ronnie]

Full of typical white southerners.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Full of typical white southerners.

LOL

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's another Unconditional Unionist area.

Full of typical white southerners.

LOL

Yeah, that one is worth a sn at...

[Ronnie]

Full of typical white southerners.

LOL

Is that a good "LOL" or a bad one?

[they don't love you like i love you]

Full of typical white southerners.

LOL

Is that a good "LOL" or a bad one?

It's a chuckle at the obvious lack of understanding of the voting patterns of "typical white Southerners" throughout history, how the region the county is in compares to the rest of Georgia and the south, among other things.

Here's a hint: Go browse and check out how "typical white southerners" voted prior to 1964.

[Hash]

Which Alabama county seceded from Alabama when it joined the CSA? I'm sure I recall reading about one.

[they don't love you like i love you]

It had to be Winston.

[longtimelurker]

Counties like Fannin and Winston (AL) were pro-Union, anti-Confederate, and have ALWAYS been strongly Republican since the Civil War.  Other counties like them would be Garrett (MD), Avery (NC), and Gillespie (TX).  Neighboring counties in Appalachia (and whatever you want to call that strip of counties between San Antonio and Austin in TX) were like them, only less so.  Eastern Tennessee, south-central Kentucky, and much of western North Carolina were often the most heavily Republican areas of the country from 1870 to 1970.  A lot of the voters in Garrett and the Texas counties were German, even Catholic (as opposed to their Scottish or Scotch-Irish Presbyterian and Baptist fellow rural white southerners), poor, and few slave-owners among them.  These counties were very rural, and the only thing they disliked more than the Federal government were their respective state governments.  They were not "typical southerners" by any means.  Notice 1948 and 1968, when southern segregationists ran as third party candidates, these counties stuck with the Republican candidate, except for Winston which went for their governor George Wallace (I guess they learned to like their state government by then).

[minionofmidas]

The Union proportion of Civil War vets from Eastern Tennessee is higher than the Confederate proportion of Civil War vets from West Virginia - despite the fact that in both cases the Confederate numbers are artificially inflated by the large numbers of people who signed up for the state militia before the battle lines were clearly drawn - before the Upper South seceded, for example. (The vast majority of people to serve in both armies served for the Confederacy first and the Union later.)
Floyd VA is another good example - but IIRC there's at least one in every state (possibly excluding South Carolina?)

[they don't love you like i love you]

The Union proportion of Civil War vets from Eastern Tennessee is higher than the Confederate proportion of Civil War vets from West Virginia - despite the fact that in both cases the Confederate numbers are artificially inflated by the large numbers of people who signed up for the state militia before the battle lines were clearly drawn - before the Upper South seceded, for example. (The vast majority of people to serve in both armies served for the Confederacy first and the Union later.)
Floyd VA is another good example - but IIRC there's at least one in every state (possibly excluding South Carolina?)

And Mississippi. What about Louisiana?

[longtimelurker]

One might have expected Jones County, MS to mirror Winston County, AL, since both put up similar resistance to the Confederacy (from various things I've read*).  But, Jones was only ~10% less Democrat than surrounding MS counties from roughly 1890-1940.  Not surprisingly, the least solidly Democratic counties (in presidential elections, at least) in MS were the Appalachian counties in the northeastern corner of the state (and from the 20's onward, the Gulf Coast counties, which started to trend Republican like the AL coast and western FL panhandle).

Regarding LA, rural southern LA parishes would vote Republican in presidential elections from the late 19th century through the 1920's.  A professional demographer and historian would need to sort out how much of this was African-Americans who were able to vote (which dropped off precipitously after 1896 in LA due to racist laws designed to disenfranchise them), and Cajuns who voted Republican because of the same reasons that many Appalachians did: they were poor whites who felt ignored by their Democratic state government.  The most "Republican" of these parishes seems to have been Assumption, which voted R in 1900, 1924 and 1936.  I've googled it and its seems demographically similar (same percentage of African-Americans and Cajuns) to surrounding counties; I wonder if African-Americans were "permitted" to vote there in higher percentages than surrounding parishes in those days (and in those days, before 1940, they were overwhelmingly Republican).

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Winston
http://wcgs.ala.nu/factandfiction.htm

and lots more...   

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Are there any such counties in New England, but for the Democrats?  Looking at the old elections, I can't seem to find any, but there may be some I overlooked.

[longtimelurker]

Not New England, but Schoharie County, NY, voted Democratic consistently, until 1916.  In 1896 it was the only county in NY that Bryan carried; several other times it was the only upstate NY county the Dems carried.  But from 1920 on, it's been as Republican as the rest of rural upstate NY.  It doesn't seem to have been a (unionized) mining county where the mines closed down after WWI (there are actually "ghost towns" in NY and NJ because of mines that closed long ago); the population continued to go up.  Waaaay back in the middle of the 19th century that area of NY usually voted D in Presidential elections, Schoharie seems to have just been the last one to switch over to R, and it took 30 years.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Interesting, thanks.

[minionofmidas]

One might have expected Jones County, MS to mirror Winston County, AL, since both put up similar resistance to the Confederacy (from various things I've read*). But, Jones was only ~10% less Democrat than surrounding MS counties from roughly 1890-1940.  Not surprisingly, the least solidly Democratic counties (in presidential elections, at least) in MS were the Appalachian counties in the northeastern corner of the state

Some Union sentiment in that area, too. Entertainingly, the same areas of MS that used to have some white Republicans are the same areas that have some white Democrats now.

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Yeah, Louisiana and Texas both had areas where at least some Blacks voted throughout Jim Crow (though I'm not sure which areas these are, exactly.)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Socialist candidates, of various stripes, used to do very well in Jones county, MS. Never could work out why.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

[War on Want]

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Hmmmm, it may have something to do with its highland Ozark location. It probably is much more of a backcountry rural area, with some sort of independent streak.
It seems like there is a higher than average Irish population there, no Scotch-Irish really though. I don't know what this would have to do with Republican voting tendencies though.

[RBH]

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Gasconade had a lot of Germans.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Hmmmm, it may have something to do with its highland Ozark location. It probably is much more of a backcountry rural area, with some sort of independent streak.
It seems like there is a higher than average Irish population there, no Scotch-Irish really though. I don't know what this would have to do with Republican voting tendencies though.

Gasconade is in southeastern Missouri, not the Ozarks.

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Gasconade had a lot of Germans.

Isn't that true of almost all of rural Missouri?

[War on Want]

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Hmmmm, it may have something to do with its highland Ozark location. It probably is much more of a backcountry rural area, with some sort of independent streak.
It seems like there is a higher than average Irish population there, no Scotch-Irish really though. I don't know what this would have to do with Republican voting tendencies though.

Gasconade is in southeastern Missouri, not the Ozarks.

Another one of these is Gasconade County, MO, which has voted Republican in every single election since 1860. Which is kind of interesting, since Missouri never seceded (hence no backlash against the Democrats) and it's not much different from the rest of rural Missouri demographically. That's an interesting one to look into.

The ones in West Virginia are also kind of interesting for the same reason.

Gasconade had a lot of Germans.

Isn't that true of almost all of rural Missouri?

It is in the Ozark foothills.

[RBH]

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No, it's in East Central Missouri, East of Jeff City and West of St. Louis

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Nope. Gasconade had a lot of German immigrants who set up Hermann and they were a lot more pro-Republican and pro-abolition than the rest of the state.