Long County GA 1956/1960/1964

[lfromnj]

It went from a classic Deep South 80% Stevenson to Nixons Best county in GA at 75%. Was this just anti Catholic sentiment? No other county swung this hard. That makes sense but then in 1964 it goes from Nixon's best county to LBJ's best county despite the fact it is in  Southern and not Northern Georgia where LBJ actually retained some rural support from less racially polarized areas.

Was this a mistake in counting and was it instead a Goldwater 85% county and not an LBJ 85% county?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

If it was so strongly anti-Catholic, why would it vote 85% for LBJ when he was obviously running on the CRA/VRA? I would assume that Southerners who hated Catholicism that much would also naturally be very racist towards blacks.


I think it's more likely that 1960 is some kind of error, perhaps JFK got 76% and not Nixon?

[lfromnj]

If it was so strongly anti-Catholic, why would it vote 85% for LBJ when he was obviously running on the CRA/VRA? I would assume that Southerners who hated Catholicism that much would also naturally be very racist towards blacks.


I think it's more likely that 1960 is some kind of error, perhaps JFK got 76% and not Nixon?

Yeah Sorry it could be this one too. I do think there is a decent chance one of them is an error.

[Sumner 1868]

Long County also voted for Hoover 70.7% after giving John Davis 88.5% in 1924. For whatever reason it clearly had an extreme level of anti-Catholicism in the 20th century.

[lfromnj]

Long County also voted for Hoover 70.7% after giving John Davis 88.5% in 1924. For whatever reason it clearly had an extreme level of anti-Catholicism in the 20th century.

Yeah thats one reason why I assumed LBJ's the error. That doesn't explain why LBJ did so well in rural Southern GA

[mianfei]

Long County also voted for Hoover 70.7% after giving John Davis 88.5% in 1924. For whatever reason it clearly had an extreme level of anti-Catholicism in the 20th century.

Yeah that’s one reason why I assumed LBJ's the error. That doesn't explain why LBJ did so well in rural Southern GA

America at the Polls seems to confirm that Long County did go 84 percent for Johnson. Actually, that it swung so hard against Smith in 1928 is, as Valdimer Key demonstrated in his Southern Politics in State and Nation, clear evidence that racial issues were less significant than in adjacent counties, although as of 2000 the county was 24 percent black. To paraphrase Key, the rebels of 1928 were the loyalists of 1948 (and the loyalists of 1964).

Key said Long County had a different (Lutheran, if I recall correctly) religious tradition from other rural Georgia counties and was more anti-Catholic.