Minnehaha County, SD

[walleye26]

Why does Minnehaha vote Republican? (Besides being very white).

[Unironic Kamala Harris for President Supporter]

What other reason is there?

[TDAS04]

My county votes Republican for reasons similar to why Cass County, ND and Woodbury County, IA vote Republican; Sioux Falls is a small city on the Plains, much like Fargo or Sioux City (Trump carried all three cities).  Also, Minnehaha still has many rural areas; many of my city's suburbs are just tiny towns.

While Sioux Falls many not be as small as Sioux City or Fargo, Sioux City voted more Republican last time.  The reason why Sioux Falls may now vote somewhat to the right of Fargo is because we lack a major university, something that Fargo has.

[walleye26]

I’ve heard more minorities are moving into Sioux Falls. Is this true?

[they don't love you like i love you]

I’ve heard more minorities are moving into Sioux Falls. Is this true?

Yes. Its down to "only" about 80% white. Its a fast growing city with good job opportunities and fairly safe so it's attractive to minorities from Omaha, Twin Cities, Des Moines and Kansas City.

[TML]

If you look at the results in this county by precinct, you will notice that in the 2016 election, Clinton won only the core part of Sioux Falls by relatively small margins, while Trump won almost all other parts of the county by relatively large margins. These two factors combine to produce a Republican blowout in the county overall.

On the other hand, Obama in 2008 was able to win more precincts in the outer parts of Sioux Falls, and was also able to keep his losing margins in outer precincts to levels smaller than Clinton's in 2016, which resulted in him eking out a narrow win in the county overall.

As I've said elsewhere, if the urban core of a county votes Democratic narrowly while the rest of the county votes Republican overwhelmingly, the result is usually a Republican win countywide; if the urban core votes Democratic overwhelmingly such that almost all of the city votes Democratic while Republican margins in other parts of the county are held in check, the result could be a Democratic win countywide.