In celebration of my 500th post, which I managed to achieve in less than five years since my registration
, I’m doing a comparison of the 2000 and 2016 elections. (Sorry if something similar has already been done; I don’t follow every thread.)
Years ago—maybe 15 years ago?—I divided the United States into 100 districts of approximately equal size. (Ninety-eight of the districts were between 2.45 and 3.15 million residents.) I then calculated the two-party vote for each of the districts, but I only have the data now rounded to the nearest percentage point. (Although my districts are fairly arbitrary, I like the fact that similarly-sized entities are being compared; I don’t think it makes sense to compare Philadelphia County with Deaf Smith County and pretend they’re equally important.)
This year, I tried to use the same districts to calculate the 2016 election results. Unfortunately, the data I got must have been very preliminary, so I had to keep adjusting the numbers to match the final results. That said, the overall picture should be fairly accurate, even if some details are wrong.
Popular vote:
2000: Gore 50%
2016: Clinton 51%
Number of my arbitrary districts carried (out of 100):
2000: Bush 58
2016: Trump 52
Most partisan districts (2000):
1. Manhattan and the Bronx. Gore 86%
2. Los Angeles Central. Gore 80%
(tie). Chicago Central. Gore 80%.
4. Queens and Brooklyn East. Gore 79%
5. Brooklyn and Staten Island. Gore 77%
6. San Francisco and Oakland. Gore 75%
7. Utah and Wyoming. Bush 72%
8. Boston. Gore 69%
9. Detroit South. Gore 68%
(tie). West Texas. Bush 68%
11. Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. Bush 67%.
Most partisan districts (2016):
1. Manhattan and the Bronx. Clinton 90%
2. Los Angeles Central. Clinton 87%
3. Chicago Central. Clinton 86%
4. San Francisco and Oakland. Clinton 85%
5. Queens and Brooklyn East. Clinton 79%
6. Los Angeles South. Clinton 75%
7. San Jose and Coastal California. Clinton 74%
8. Brooklyn and Staten Island. Clinton 73%
9. West Virginia and East Kentucky. Trump 73%
10. East Tennessee. Trump 73%
11. Virginia North and the District of Columbia. Clinton 72%
12. North East Texas and North Louisiana. Trump 71%
13. Oklahoma. Trump 69%
14. Boston. Clinton 69%
15. Washington Coastal. Clinton 69%
16. Los Angeles East. Clinton 68%
17. Newark. Clinton 68%
18. Pennsylvania South East. Clinton 68%
19. Detroit South. Clinton 68%
20. Mid Pennsylvania. Trump 68%
21. West Texas. Trump 67%
Gore-Trump districts:
East New York State
New York State West
Long Island
New Jersey South
Pennsylvania West
West Tennessee
South Michigan
South Minnesota
Iowa
South East Missouri
Bush-Clinton districts:
Virginia South East
North East Carolina
Georgia Central
Florida Central
Miami and Florida South West
Illinois North
Houston
Texas Gulf Coast and Austin
San Antonio and South Texas
Dallas
Colorado North
Arizona East
San Diego
Orange County
California South East
Hawaii and Alaska
Biggest swings (2000 to 2016):
1. West Virginia and East Kentucky. Bush 55% to Trump 73%.
2. East Tennessee. Bush 57% to Trump 73%.
3. Virginia North and the District of Columbia. Gore 58% to Clinton 72%.
4. Dallas. Bush 59% to Clinton 54%.
5. San Jose and California Coastal. Gore 61% to Clinton 74%.
6. San Diego. Bush 52% to Clinton 61%.
7. Orange County. Bush 58% to Clinton 54%.
8. Los Angeles North and Santa Barbara. Gore 54% to Clinton 65%.
9. Arkansas. Bush 53% to Trump 64%.
10. Sacramento and Contra Costa. Gore 55% to Clinton 66%.
11. Chicago Suburban. Gore 54% to Clinton 65%.
12. Texas Gulf Coast and Austin. Bush 59% to Clinton 52%.
13. San Francisco and Oakland. Gore 75% to Clinton 85%.
14. Los Angeles South. Gore 65% to Clinton 75%.
15. Houston. Bush 57% to Clinton 53%.