the Driftless Area

[Linus Van Pelt]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Discuss.

[Linus Van Pelt]

That Dem riverbelt extends outside of Wisconsin, though.

All right, how about this, then?

[Linus Van Pelt]

Bump.

This effect remained strong this election, as has been noted a couple of other places, and may be even increasing in some areas.

Interestingly, this actually isn't an area of traditional Democratic farm populism, as you'll see if you compare 2012 in any of the affected states to, say, 1976 or 1988. In NE Iowa and the SE corner of Minnesota, Obama won counties that never voted Dem in any of the three elections with Mondale on the ticket or in the 1988 farm crisis. And in Illinois the contrast is even more dramatic; in the NW there are even a few Goldwater/Obama '12 counties. In general NW Illinois seems to be splitting off from the downstate.

Both here and in northern New England, it seems like the combination of hillier small farms and a kind of northern, non-Evangelical culture has led to an increased Dem rural vote in recent years, even though many areas with just one without the other have been very GOP.