I would dispute that some of the counties listed in Indiana are "economically distressed", but aside from that I think there is much less of a correlation between distressed areas and republican voting than other posters seem to be gathering from this data. It may line up pretty well with Trump trend though. Also to PBrower farming is a very high tech industry which is why there are few jobs in it, technology has taken away most of the manual labor.
Farmers may use high technology, but that no more makes farming a high-tech industry than is metal processing.
I disagree with this. Farming can be a volatile business depending on what the market is doing, but many farmers nowadays are using top notch technology and are well versed in extremely complex financial products to hedge their risks. The old stereotype of farmers being uneducated country bumpkins is pretty far from the truth.
