Vigo County, Indiana is the the most prominent bellwether of presidential elections in the country – voting for the winning candidate in every election from 1956 through 2012. Furthermore, Vigo County has picked the winner in 30 of the last 32 Presidential Elections. It barely missed in 1952, voting for Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower by 0.07% and a more substantial 10.6% miss in 1908 by choosing William Bryan over William Howard Taft. The list of hits, however, is much longer – Vigo extended its streak in 2012 by voting for Barack Obama – although barely with a margin of only 0.86% (49.3% to 48.4%). The table below compares the results in Vigo County to the National results for the years 1888 through 2012. The average margin delta (difference between the margin in Vigo County and the margin nationwide) for the last 124 years is only 4%. The accompanying bar chart is a graphical representation of these data.
Year | National | Vigo | √ | Nat Margin | Vigo Margin | Margin ∆ |
1888 | Rep | Rep | √ | 0.83% | 1.36% | -0.5% |
1892 | Dem | Dem | √ | 3.01% | 3.40% | 0.4% |
1896 | Rep | Rep | √ | 4.31% | 2.95% | 1.4% |
1900 | Rep | Rep | √ | 6.13% | 3.25% | 2.9% |
1904 | Rep | Rep | √ | 18.83% | 20.19% | -1.4% |
1908 | Rep | Dem | 8.53% | 2.07% | 10.6% | |
1912 | Dem | Dem | √ | 14.44% | 12.56% | -1.9% |
1916 | Dem | Dem | √ | 3.12% | 9.92% | 6.8% |
1920 | Rep | Rep | √ | 26.17% | 7.89% | 18.3% |
1924 | Rep | Rep | √ | 25.22% | 17.66% | 7.6% |
1928 | Rep | Rep | √ | 17.42% | 10.61% | 6.8% |
1932 | Dem | Dem | √ | 17.76% | 16.77% | -1.0% |
1936 | Dem | Dem | √ | 24.25% | 31.02% | 6.8% |
1940 | Dem | Dem | √ | 9.95% | 11.64% | 1.7% |
1944 | Dem | Dem | √ | 7.49% | 6.83% | -0.7% |
1948 | Dem | Dem | √ | 4.48% | 15.05% | 10.6% |
1952 | Rep | Dem | 10.85% | 0.07% | 10.9% | |
1956 | Rep | Rep | √ | 15.40% | 1.14% | 14.3% |
1960 | Dem | Dem | √ | 0.16% | 0.33% | 0.2% |
1964 | Dem | Dem | √ | 22.58% | 18.41% | -4.2% |
1968 | Rep | Rep | √ | 0.70% | 1.04% | -0.3% |
1972 | Rep | Rep | √ | 23.15% | 22.13% | 1.0% |
1976 | Dem | Dem | √ | 2.06% | 2.32% | 0.3% |
1980 | Rep | Rep | √ | 9.74% | 10.47% | -0.7% |
1984 | Rep | Rep | √ | 18.22% | 17.41% | 0.8% |
1988 | Rep | Rep | √ | 7.73% | 6.63% | 1.1% |
1992 | Dem | Dem | √ | 5.56% | 5.26% | -0.3% |
1996 | Dem | Dem | √ | 8.52% | 5.77% | -2.8% |
2000 | Rep | Rep | √* | 0.52% | 1.24% | -0.7% |
2004 | Rep | Rep | √ | 2.46% | 6.45% | -4.0% |
2008 | Dem | Dem | √ | 7.26% | 15.77% | 8.5% |
2012 | Dem | Dem | √ | 3.85% | 0.86% | -3.0% |
*In 2000, the popular vote went to Albert Gore, Jr., but the electoral vote went to George W. Bush.