Harris County, TX - Presidential results precinct map link

[Benj]

I didn't realize that Houston's downtown voted GOP. Why is that?

Most people who live in downtown Houston are wealthy employees of big oil companies (and support groups, like law firms and accounting firms, whose fates in Houston are also tied to the oil industry).

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White people. It's the South. White areas in urban areas of all cities in the South are intensely Republican, with only occasional exceptions (and the exception in Houston is the Montrose district).

[Benj]

I didn't realize that Houston's downtown voted GOP. Why is that?

Most people who live in downtown Houston are wealthy employees of big oil companies (and support groups, like law firms and accounting firms, whose fates in Houston are also tied to the oil industry).

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White people. It's the South. White areas in urban areas of all cities in the South are intensely Republican, with only occasional exceptions (and the exception in Houston is the Montrose district).

I doubt urban whites in the South are that Republican, at least compared to Southern whites overall.  Anyone have any data/approximations about this? For one, I believe Obama won the NC-9 portion (2000s) of Mecklenburg, NC in 2008.

A quick glance at a precinct map of Mecklenburg County will tell you that, if this is true, it's only true because NC-09 contains a bunch of racially mixed, ~60% Obama precincts where whites are the largest group but short of a majority. Anyway, it's obvious to anyone that whites in North Carolina are not the same as whites elsewhere in the South (except Virginia).

Look at precinct results in Birmingham or Atlanta or Memphis. Even Richmond, VA has a >70%  McCain/Romney precinct, and Virginia has far more white Democrats than Texas.