Why is Indiana so Republican?

[Suburbia]

Yes, I know Indiana voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in Barack Obama in 2008 for the first time since 1964,

https://www.politico.com/blogs/charlie-mahtesian/2012/05/indiana-the-obama-state-that-got-away-123907

Despite the conservatism of Mitch Daniels, Vice President Mike Pence, the affluent fiscal conservatism of Susan Brooks, why is Indiana so Republican?

[junior chįmp]

Indiana is strange as it used to be one of the most unionized states and is so far the only state that has repealed it's RTW law only to have the GOP trash reinstate it after 2010

[Red Tory Indy]

Indiana kind of votes like you would expect most states with its demographics to vote.
-Indiana contains one large city which votes heavily D cancelled out by the heavily Republican Indianapolis suburbs.
-Several Republican leaning small cities and rural areas that outvote  the heavily D NW Indiana Chicago Suburbs/exurbs (Gary) and couple small college towns.

[progressive85]

I don't know how Barack won it in 2008.  It was a huge swing from 2004.

[Bismarck]

I don't know how Barack won it in 2008.  It was a huge swing from 2004.

He brought tens of thousands of new voters out in Marion County, and he cut the margins in the doughnut counties (the suburban counties that ring Marion) to the point that for once they didn’t outvote Marion. He also overperformed among rural midwesterners generally, and got a big turnout among folks in Lafayette/West Lafayette to flip Tippecanoe County, home of Purdue University.

[RINO Tom]

Indiana kind of votes like you would expect most states with its demographics to vote.
-Indiana contains one large city which votes heavily D cancelled out by the heavily Republican Indianapolis suburbs.
-Several Republican leaning small cities and rural areas that outvote  the heavily D NW Indiana Chicago Suburbs/exurbs (Gary) and couple small college towns.

And Indianapolis is actually a fairly moderate to conservative town when you look at the White vote.  Any Democrat trying to win Indiana will need massive minority turnout there.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

[RINO Tom]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

It's just a feeling. Just like I have a feeling that Clinton won Tennessee twice thanks to his running mate.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

Bush only won it by 6%, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Clinton could have carried it without Quayle on the GOP ticket.

[Tekken_Guy]

You mean suburbs like Carmel and Fishers? They seem like the places that would turn on the GOP over Trump, but yeah, it's too rural and Indianapolis isn't big like Chicago or the Twin Cities to cancel that out and its suburbs are more conservative.

[Tekken_Guy]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

Bush only won it by 6%, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Clinton could have carried it without Quayle on the GOP ticket.

Regardless that was a fluke because of Perot.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

Bush only won it by 6%, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Clinton could have carried it without Quayle on the GOP ticket.

Regardless that was a fluke because of Perot.

I don't know about Indiana specifically, but nationally, Perot took equally from Bush and Clinton. the idea that Perot cost him the election is still a myth.

[RINO Tom]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

Bush only won it by 6%, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Clinton could have carried it without Quayle on the GOP ticket.

Regardless that was a fluke because of Perot.

I don't know about Indiana specifically, but nationally, Perot took equally from Bush and Clinton. the idea that Perot cost him the election is still a myth.

He could have taken equally nationally and still cost Bush the election.

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Citation needed.

Bush only won it by 6%, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Clinton could have carried it without Quayle on the GOP ticket.

Regardless that was a fluke because of Perot.

I don't know about Indiana specifically, but nationally, Perot took equally from Bush and Clinton. the idea that Perot cost him the election is still a myth.

He could have taken equally nationally and still cost Bush the election.

This is true, I would love to see state-by-state exit polls if they exist.

[MT Treasurer]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Which is also why Clinton lost the state decisively in 1996 despite winning in an EC landslide and with Perot taking votes away from Dole?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

In 1992 it only voted for Bush because Mr. Potatoe was his running mate.

Which is also why Clinton lost the state decisively in 1996 despite winning in an EC landslide and with Perot taking votes away from Dole?

Maybe the Hoosiers were still mad at Clinton for defeating their favorite son.

[RINO Tom]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

What would you consider "many" college towns?  You have Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Indiana State, Butler, Ball State, etc. all in Indiana.

[Kamala's side hoe]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

Why is having a large German American community relevant? I’ve heard its early settlement by people from more southern colonies like Virginia has led to IN voting more like a southern state.

[RINO Tom]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

Why is having a large German American community relevant? I’ve heard its early settlement by people from more southern colonies like Virginia has led to IN voting more like a southern state.

Voting Republican is not just analogous with voting like a Southern state, LOL.

[Bismarck]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

Why is having a large German American community relevant? I’ve heard its early settlement by people from more southern colonies like Virginia has led to IN voting more like a southern state.

Actually the southern (and more southern/Appalachian influenced) part of the state is traditionally more democratic. In 2016 rural southern Indiana voted more or less the same as rural northern Indiana but this has not usually been the case, especially for statewide elections.

[Kamala's side hoe]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

Why is having a large German American community relevant? I’ve heard its early settlement by people from more southern colonies like Virginia has led to IN voting more like a southern state.

Voting Republican is not just analogous with voting like a Southern state, LOL.

Someone on Atlas once said that was a factor in Indiana historically voting differently from Ohio and Illinois, I don't remember who. Maybe they said "conservative" instead of "Republican".

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population

Why is having a large German American community relevant? I’ve heard its early settlement by people from more southern colonies like Virginia has led to IN voting more like a southern state.

Voting Republican is not just analogous with voting like a Southern state, LOL.

Someone on Atlas once said that was a factor in Indiana historically voting differently from Ohio and Illinois, I don't remember who. Maybe they said "conservative" instead of "Republican".

Indiana used to be a swing state and it was so in the late 1800's. Lincoln's nomination was made precisely to appeal to states like this that Fremont had lost. The State only had a narrow strip of "Yankee diaspora" or "Yankee exodus" in its northern counties, whereas OH for instance had a greater checkerboard pattern of Southern and Yankee and German settlements. Illinois also had a greater surge of Yankee settlement in the 1850's/1860's as Chicago boomed from the canals and railroads.

Indiana thus didn't have much of an abolitionist presence, and very little in the way of Free Soil Yankee Democrats who would join a new GOP, and its Whig presence was weak like most of the states west of OH. Its Democrats were either Southerns or Catholic German/Irish. They didn't care much about slavery, but they did care about jobs and Lincoln appealed to this "they are going to take your jobs angle" to get Indiana to vote Republican. His family was also one of them, having been Kentuckians who moved north to Indiana and then to Illinois.

The Republicans depended on German protestants to stay about even and the state mirrored the national average in most every election during this period.

Even in 1928, the state matches the national numbers, but that belies pro-catholic Dem shifts and anti-catholic GOP shifts under the surface most likely, exaggerating the previous dynamic. The real shift begins in 1936 and most especially in 1940, and this coincides with the realignment of Germans (including Catholic Germans) to the Republicans, during the New Deal Era.

Since then most German heavy states in the Midwest have been more Republican than the national average.

[Spark]

- Very conservative suburbs
- Largely rural
- White and Protestant, and of German origin
- Not many college towns
- Low minority population