How did Nixon do so well in West Virginia in 1972?

[morgieb]

It's worth noting that the 1972 and 1984 elections look pretty dissimilar despite both elections having the incumbent Republican president keep their Democratic opponent to just one state. McGovern's (small) coalition was kind of upmarket, being pretty college friendly and basically all his House seat wins outside of Massachusetts being in urban areas. Nixon was moderate enough on key issues to make allies with unions to outwedge McGovern with more "traditional" Democrats. One could say there was parallels between that election and the Corbyn/Johnson one in the UK.

1984 however Reagan was the candidate of Cadillac driving Sunbelt suburbanites but his relationship with working-class voters was lukewarm at best. He was a fairly rubbish fit for unionised voters and while plenty still went for him because he won by so much, the kinds of voters that didn't jump on the Reagan bandwagon skewed a lot more working-class than anti-Nixon voters.