EastAnglianLefty
Jr. Member
Posts: 1,638
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« on: April 06, 2020, 06:09:15 AM » |
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Lake County in Michigan voted Democrat at every election from 1964 to 2012 except 1984 (but including 1972) and seems to have fairly reliably voted significantly to the left of all of its neighbours. However, Trump won it by 23 points in 2016 and its electoral behaviour is now barely distinguishable from its neighbours.
What explains it? The county looks to have a slightly larger black population than its neighbours, but not enough to explain the difference on its own. What's more, it appears to contain a private prison, which suggests the actual electorate is considerably less black (and prison workers wouldn't intuitively strike me as a particularly Democratic constituency.) Is there anything else about its history or economy that has made it more Democratic than its neighbours and why did this stop applying in 2016?
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