Green County, WI

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Madison is a weird metro area in that it doesn't have any real areas of Republican strength. Even the Bay Area had some pockets that were willing to vote Republican pre-Trump, and still are to some level downballot (and probably more willing to do so once Trump is gone.) Believe it or not, the Bay Area still elected a Republican State Rep until 2018, and her district gave Romney over 40%. It's an incredibly wealthy area. Yes, wealthy even by the standards of the Bay Area.

The weird thing about this is that by most people's standards and the standards of most countries (but not the US Census), the Madison metro doesn't really extend outside of Dane County. When you see the signs that you're entering Dane County you're still surrounded by farmland. Sure some people might still commute to Madison from there, but commuters from effectively rural towns aren't exactly known for being Democrats, even in state capitol areas, it's not like the exurbs of Indianapolis or Des Moines are Democratic areas. And Madison's suburbs aren't really much different in appearance than the Milwaukee suburbs. Both are the strip mall, chain big box stores and fast food filled stereotypical suburbia. Not that places like that consistently vote D don't to or that many Democrats shop at such places too, but it's a bit striking to wonder what makes the culture so much different. It's not like the economy there is entirely the university and state government, Madison is home to many offices of various energy, insurance, IT, pharmaceutical, banking and lending (my employer was headquartered in Madison before my division was bought by a competitor, and the part of the company that wasn't bought still is) companies, and while those industries might have tons of Democrats still working in there, but it's kind of odd that so few of them who just happen to work in Madison are Republican in comparison to basically any other metro in the Midwest. Madison even has a sizable manufacturing sector, no doubt employing many of those blue collar non-college educated whites.

So yeah, it's a bit odd.