Why does Oklahoma always vote Republican?

[holtridge]

Why does Oklahoma always vote Republican?

[Kuumo]

Why do white, rural, Midwestern/Southern states tend to vote Republican?

[Skill and Chance]

Why do very white, rural states tend to vote Republican?

Oklahoma is 65% non-Hispanic White (less than Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, or Tennessee) but OK.

Lots and lots of people with Native heritage in OK who fully identify with rural Middle America politically speaking.

[Kuumo]

Why do very white, rural states tend to vote Republican?

Oklahoma is 65% non-Hispanic White (less than Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, or Tennessee) but OK.

The "very" probably should have been modifying rural instead of white since Oklahoma is about 66.2% urban, much less than the country overall at 80.7% (U.S. Census Bureau). Oklahoma has bigger black and Hispanic populations than I thought. I also should have included "Midwestern/Southern" since there are major cultural differences with more liberal, secular regions like New England that should be considered.

[Kuumo]

Oklahoma City is a major urban center but it never seems to tilt the the state to the left at all.

The Oklahoma City metropolitan area has about 1.2 million people and is about evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, and the other 2.7 million people in the state are overwhelmingly Republican. This is very different from Arizona where a majority of the population lives in Maricopa County and the rest of the state leans only modestly Republican.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Why do very white, rural states tend to vote Republican?

Oklahoma is 65% non-Hispanic White (less than Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, or Tennessee) but OK.

Lots and lots of people with Native heritage in OK who fully identify with rural Middle America politically speaking.

Yeah, they are very assimilated into white culture.

[ElectionsGuy]

Large amounts of population rural, relatively Republican metros in OKC and Tulsa, very religious, large oil/gas industry, relatively Republican non-white population.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

It's above TX Latinos and Native Americans are 2nd Amendment rights holders as well as AA in OH, they care about gun rights as well and against LGBT communities

[AtorBoltox]

Why does Oklahoma never swing? The results have been basically the same in every election since 2004

[NOVA Green]

Oklahoma consistently voted DEM from '32 > '48.

Jimmy Carter barely lost OK in '76.

MA Liberal Dukakis bagged 41% in '88, despite losing in a National + 8% R landslide.

Bill Clinton was able to haul in 40%, with Dole from the neighboring Midwest State of KS only hitting 48% in '96, despite Perot being on the ballot.

This might all seem like ancient history, but as rural pops in OK decline, and if DEMs continue to increase support in metro OKC & Tulsa, plus bring back some of the Ancestral Rural DEMs in heavily Cherokee Country in SE OK, plus prop up rural margins on economic populist issues (Pay for Teachers, Minimum Wage, Health Care, etc), they might be able to become competitive Statewide towards the end of the 2020s (IMHO).

Oil and Gas Industry isn't what it used to be in Oklahoma... Data Centers are rapidly expanding in both OKC & Tulsa (Granted these are not Labor Intensive Industries but there are enough techie jobs associated, which are gradually shifting some of the occupational job classifications within the region).

[Inmate Trump]

BECAUSE OKLAHOMA IS RIGGED!  BUT WE WILL WIN!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

BECAUSE OKLAHOMA IS RIGGED!  BUT WE WILL WIN!

James McGovern tried to challenge Alabama's electoral votes when the 2016 vote was counted. It was obviously chosen because it's first alphabetically and not because anyone sane thought that Hillary could have won it without Russia.

[Chips]

A more conservative than normal urban core and the rest of the state votes Republican often by margins of 30% or more.

[Person Man]

There’s a lot of poor rich people there. Or are they rich poor people? I don’t know but fossil fuels are basically their job program. Democrats don’t like fossil fuels because of how destructive they are but Republicans only exist because they are owned by the fossil fuel business. And even if only a few people are hired to do the drilling, fracking, and mining, whose going to sell them their Ford 150s and Monsters?

[BaldEagle1991]

1. Bible Belt state

2. Predominately White

3. The Natives in Oklahoma have been massively assimilated. They're easily comparable to the Cuban-Ams in Florida and the Cajun Catholics in Louisiana.

4. I think having oil and gas + agriculture helps a bit too. Their economy is less diversified than that of TX.

[Fuzzy Bear]

There’s a lot of poor rich people there. Or are they rich poor people? I don’t know but fossil fuels are basically their job program. Democrats don’t like fossil fuels because of how destructive they are but Republicans only exist because they are owned by the fossil fuel business. And even if only a few people are hired to do the drilling, fracking, and mining, whose going to sell them their Ford 150s and Monsters?

This, plus Oklahoma is one of the most religious states in the nation, as measured by the number of regular churchgoers.

[BaldEagle1991]

There’s a lot of poor rich people there. Or are they rich poor people? I don’t know but fossil fuels are basically their job program. Democrats don’t like fossil fuels because of how destructive they are but Republicans only exist because they are owned by the fossil fuel business. And even if only a few people are hired to do the drilling, fracking, and mining, whose going to sell them their Ford 150s and Monsters?

This, plus Oklahoma is one of the most religious states in the nation, as measured by the number of regular churchgoers.

True. I’ve been there a few times and yes it’s as religious as you can get there.