I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the Political Geography and Demographics forum. Moderators can please move it if it is supposed to go there.
This is interesting. If Appalachia were its own state, Trump would obviously have won in a landslide:
But one funny thing is that with Appalachia removed from Virginia, Rubio would actually have won the rest of Virginia. If Little Marco had won a state like VA on Super Tuesday, maybe he might have done a better job of consolidating establishment Republicans, and might have stayed in the race longer:
On the Dem side, it was a close race in Appalachia, with Clinton narrowly winning. I think that if the entirety of Appalachia voted in a closed primary, Bernie would have won. Whereas if the entirety of Appalachia voted in an open primary, Hillary would have won. A key variable is whether the Republican primary is open or closed. If it were open, then Conservadems would cross over and vote for Trump in the GOP primary rather than vote for Bernie in the Dem primary. All kinds of irony here.
