Sun Belt Conference:
Arkansas State University....
Jonesboro, Arkansas:
8,396 HRC (33.9%), Trump 14,823 (59.8% R) + 25.7% R
Very interesting.... not sure if anyone has insights onto Jonesboro and Arkansas State University, but it does seem a bit odd that it voted much more heavily Republican, than even "Whiter" College Cities in the Cotton Belt and Appalachia....
A possibility (that may be impossible to confirm) would be that Arkansas St. had a higher percentage of the vote coming from undergraduate students compared to professors and academics (including grad students). It is possible that groups on campus made more of an effort to get students to vote at their campus address (rather than their parents' house) than at some other universities. It wouldn't surprise me if the undergrads at somewhere like Arkansas St. voted 60-75% Trump (depending on the racial demographics of the student body, which I'm not sure of), which offset the professors and academics in town. Unfortunately, other than seeing how many votes were cast in the campus precinct (which can be very low and reflective of student bodies as a whole if a group of one party encourages it and the other doesn't, for example) or popular off-campus residence areas for students, it's impossible to confirm or deny this theory.
Your thinking is exactly the opposite of the truth. The city is the conservative base, not the University.
