I don’t know what this means, but I found it interesting. The counties don’t seem to have much in common. It’s one county in a deeply red state and one in New York. You can’t call New York a deeply blue state because massive areas are part of Trump country. New York City, Albany and the Great Lakes cities vote Democratic, but the Southern Tier, Long Island and everything north of the Albany Metro voted Republican.
Essex County, NY.
Essex County is north of Lake George on the Vermont Border. It’s beautiful country. I spent a lot of time there when I was young, climbing Whiteface Mountain and Mt. Marcy. The population density is about 20 people per square mile.
The most famous things about it:
- That is where John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave!
- The Miracle on Ice happened there when Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1980.
- Fort Ticonderoga played a moderately important role in the American Revolution.
Blaine County, Montana
Blaine County is a desolate farming/ranching area on the Canadian border. It’s classic Big Sky country – 4,000 square miles of land with fewer than two inhabitants per square mile. That’s even sparse by Montana standards – the state averages four to five times as many people per square mile. The big population center in Blaine County is Chinook, with a population of a thousand.
Unlike Essex County, New York, nothing memorable ever happened in Blaine. There is only one noteworthy thing about it:
- Despite its tiny population, Blaine is the ultimate Bellwether county – it has voted for the losing candidate only once since 1916! (Dukakis, of all people.) Given its location, I’m surprised that it turns blue so often.
Blaine County is half Native American, due to the Fort Belknap reservation being here. That may go to explaining it.
I saw that.
The NBC exit polls broke out the Native American vote this year. I was surprised to see that they are extremely Republican – about the same Trump % as poorly educated white voters. The only Trumpier group is white evangelicals.
So, given rural whites and Native Americans, we’d expect Blaine to be an extremely Trumpy county, but it isn’t. Blaine County’s vote was pretty close. Trump took only 51%, which suggests that the Native Americans there are probably voting Democratic.
It could be that the Native American vote can’t be grouped nationally. Perhaps each tribe has its own issues and some vote Dem. That’s too deep into the data for me!
+ Infinite points for the John Brown reference!
Essex County:
4. Singer Lana Del Rey is from there. (Would you believe she turns 40 next year?)