Why did NYC suburbs trend Trump (esp Suffolk and to a lesser extent Staten Island) unlike suburbs in the rest of the country?
Italian americans swung heavily towards trump when in 2008 and 2012 they went swung towards obama. Also a lot of the swing to trump in suburban areas where in areas that were on the lower scale of middle class and had more some college education+HS only compared to higher income/bachelor degrees+
https://decisiondeskhq.com/data-dives/education-best-explains-the-presidential-swing-map/Decisiondeskhq compared these set of precints to prove it.
Also about Italian americans. They were once the bastion of the democratic party pre-1940s. But after 1940s, suburbanization, disagreements over abortion and a "southernization" of italians into supporting security/Law and order candidates like Giuliani because of tensions with other races. Made them go towards the GOP. Also italian americans were one of the poorer white ethnics so there is a lot more of them compared to other white ethnic groups in the country, who are lower middle class and even working class. With many still doing blue collar work. Which helped Trump in swinging them heavily in 2016.
