Why is Putnam County, NY so Republican?

[Suburbia]

More Republican than Richmond, Nassau and Suffolk.....didn't even vote for Clinton, Obama and Biden.....

Why?

[rhg2052]

Putnam is kind of the forgotten county of the NYC metro area. It's a bit too far from the city for there to be a lot of commuters, but it's not quite far enough to for the Dems to benefit as much from Hudson Valley/Catskills traits like tourism and education. It also doesn't have a significant population center like Poughkeepsie or Newburgh, it's mostly exurbs and park land.

[cinyc]

Exurban Italian-Americans.

[lfromnj]

Also are whites here really any more Republican than Nassau/Suffolk whites?

[CookieDamage]

While it's a consistently GOP county, the margins haven't been extreme. Since 2000, GOP candidates haven't won Putnam by more than 55, with the exception of 2004.  Bush 2000, McCain, Romney, and Trump 2020 all carried Putnam with around 53-54.

It also lost population compared to 2010, so I don't think it's on the way to being a Dem county either despite single digit GOP wins.

[TML]

I believe the main reason is that non-whites make up less than 10% of this county's population if you include Hispanics who identify as white. However, about 40% of the population here has higher education, so if educational trends continue, this county does have the potential to flip within the next generation.