Coos County, NH is the poorest County in NH with an MHI of $ 40.3k /Yr, 16.1% of the Population living in poverty, and the largest % of the population on Food Stamps, and the lowest % of employment of working-aged Males in the State (64.7%)
Of the single poorest County by State, it had the largest swing towards the Republican Presidential candidate between 2012 > 2016,
with a whopping +27% R swing.Here's a link to a thread that I started on how the poorest Counties in each state voted between '12 . '16
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=267947.msg5743056#msg5743056One thing that obviously stands out here is the extremely large French / French-Canadian population (40% by Ancestry) and much lower proportions of English and Irish by Ancestry.
In general, poverty in the three Northern States of New England (VT,NH, and ME) were most pronounced within those counties and communities with high numbers of French / French-Canadians, as well as massive swings towards Trump in '16.
If we look at the age of the residents, we see approximately 22% of the entire population in Coos County was 65+, and 39% 55+, which makes it significantly older than most other Counties in NH.
The largest Industries are Health Care, Retail, and Hospitality, which combined account for 42% of the work-force, and with the exception of the former, tend to skew towards relatively low paid service sector jobs.
The educational profile of the County of those 25+/Yrs (28.3% Degree > HS Diploma, 59.6% HS Diploma, 12.1% No HS diploma) place it as having a much lower educational attainment rate than NH at large.
The economic challenges to the "North Country" part of NH are steep, as the once influential pulp and paper industries have collapsed in recent years leaving behind a much smaller pool of decent paying jobs.
https://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/tag/north-country/https://www.berlinnh.gov/sites/berlinnh/files/uploads/economic_development.pdfGiven the city’s long relationship with the wood and paper
processing industry, the closure of the Fraser Pulp Mill in Berlin and the subsequent
ripple through other sectors largely contributed to a loss of 1,120 private sector jobs,
including 970 goods producing and 150 service-related jobs, over ten years. http://www.gorhamnh.org/Pages/GorhamNH_Selectmen/Chapters/8.pdfSo, to go back to your original question(s):
How would you characterize the people of Coös County? Are they liberal or more conservative. Why do the love Trump and Paul so much?1.) I would characterize the people of Coos County as economically liberal, but protectionist at the same time. Socially a bit more conservative than NH as a whole (High Catholic population), fairly rural / small-town dominated, with significant outdoors activity tied to hunting and fishing, foreign policy fairly isolationist / non-interventionist.
2.) Trump's popularity has less to do with his character I suspect, and more to do with the fundamental economic conditions of the County, and his promises to crack down on unfair foreign trade competition. The themes and frequent references to the paper and pulp industry and Canadian competition strongly resonate in these types of communities, as they do in many communities in Oregon that have also seen a significant loss of jobs directly as a result of competition from Canada (Saw Mill jobs lost from significant growth in Canadian processed timber importation) and (pulp mill jobs lost from exportation and re-importation of paper products produced in China from raw logs exported out from Oregon).
Much of the reason for this was the Great Recession, which changed global trade patterns within the pulp/paper and processed timber sector, to the significant detriment of places like Coos County, NH.
I strongly suspect that Trump will fail to deliver on his promises to the Mill Workers in these communities, and we will likely see a correction back to support for the Democratic Party possibly in 2020, and if not then almost certainly in 2024.
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