Ancestry and political attitudes

[soniquemd21921]

I'm pretty sure that New Englanders of Yankee ancestry were the most Republican ethnic voting bloc in the party's first century. When you consider that many New England towns that were in the 70 to 80 percent GOP range in the 40's and 50's had sizeable Catholic populations, Yankee support for Republicans may have easily approached - or even surpassed - 90 percent.

[soniquemd21921]

Looking at past election results, it appears that German Catholics started voting Republican long before other Catholic groups did, and were not as lopsidedly Democratic as other Catholics were (like in New England, where Catholic support for Democrats was in the 80-90 percent range). JFK's percentage of the vote in German Catholic counties was below Al Smith's percentage in those counties (Stearns, Minnesota was 71% Smith but 58% Kennedy, for example).

Was Osage the only non-southern county that voted for JFK and then voted for Goldwater?

[soniquemd21921]

1968 was an aberration, too, because of Wallace.

In New England, Republicans still do better at the local level than the presidential level. For example, in Vermont Randy Brock ran 7 points higher than Romney, and in Massachusetts Scott Brown did almost 10 points better than Romney.

[soniquemd21921]

And middle-class and urban southerners were already beginning to move away the Democratic Party as early as the 1940's, as the increase in GOP presidential percentages in major urban southern counties illustrates:

Fulton County (Atlanta) - 16% in 1940, 17% in 1944, 29% in 1948, 40% in 1952
Dallas County - 25% in 1940, 26% in 1944, 38% in 1948, 63% in 1952
Harris County (Houston) - 22% in 1940, 14% in 1944, 35% in 1948, 58% in 1952
Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) - 20% in 1940, 27% in 1944, 35% in 1948, 57% in 1952
Duval County (Jacksonville) - 18% in 1940, 25% in 1944, 26% in 1948, 48% in 1952
Shelby County (Memphis) - 11% in 1940, 18% in 1944, 22% in 1948, 48% in 1952