NYC and the Dems!

[TommyC1776]

It seems ever since the mid/late-1800's the Dems have gotten NYC and the Bronx and other suburbs.  how come?  with the exceptions of 1896, 1900, 1920 and 1924.

[nclib]

Large cities tend to be both socially and economically liberal. In the elections you mentioned, the issues were very different.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Machine politics

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Irish Immigration did play a huge role. I can't explain 1896 or 1900 (other than perhaps Bryan was not the sort of candidate to appeal to the urban working class.) but 1920 and 24 were the direct result of Wilson's alienation of Irish immigrants (and Germans and other traditional pro-democrat ethnics) with his foreign policy.

[Verily]

Machine politics until the 1950s-60s, then general leftism and liberalism afterward.

[TommyC1776]

thanks.

[TommyC1776]

Good info.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, NYC's level of Democratism in the 1840s-80s is pretty weird. Although the reason is "tradition". (Democrats lost NYC one more time btw, in 1848, when Martin Van Buren split the vote there big time.)

[Alcon]

While we're at it, could someone venture to explain Staten Island to me?  I know the basics about it, and can see why it would vote Republican, but it still seems somewhat odd to me that it did in 2004 (9/11 effect notwithstanding).  What is it like, culturally and economically?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

New York was a swing county in the 1840s.

[bullmoose88]

Yeah, NYC's level of Democratism in the 1840s-80s is pretty weird. Although the reason is "tradition". (Democrats lost NYC one more time btw, in 1848, when Martin Van Buren split the vote there big time.)

I think Al's answer is the best. While NYC was/and is a reliably democratic city...it still went democratic even when other cities (Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia) were Republican strongholds up until the Great Depression.

Just seems that while the GOP machine ran those cities, the dems had pretty good control in NYC

[KEmperor]

While we're at it, could someone venture to explain Staten Island to me?  I know the basics about it, and can see why it would vote Republican, but it still seems somewhat odd to me that it did in 2004 (9/11 effect notwithstanding).  What is it like, culturally and economically?

It's very white and suburban.  Lots of Italians and such.  It's not like the rest of the city at all really.

[Verily]

While we're at it, could someone venture to explain Staten Island to me?  I know the basics about it, and can see why it would vote Republican, but it still seems somewhat odd to me that it did in 2004 (9/11 effect notwithstanding).  What is it like, culturally and economically?

What KEmperor said. It's not at all diverse and mostly suburban and wealthy. Much like Nassau County on Long Island, it's undergoing a demographic change, and will likely no longer be Republican within a couple of decades. It's already moved from "Republican bastion" to "mildly Republican".

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There was an interesting thread about (or at least involving) Staten Island a while back; https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=41953.0

[Cubby]

While we're at it, could someone venture to explain Staten Island to me?  I know the basics about it, and can see why it would vote Republican, but it still seems somewhat odd to me that it did in 2004 (9/11 effect notwithstanding).  What is it like, culturally and economically?

Its very Italian and working class. But unlike Nassau, Suffolk or Westchester, it has a smaller Jewish population, therefore fewer Democratic voters. It's also home to a disproportionate number of firemen and policemen, so the 9/11 effect almost certainly happened here, as opposed to the rest of the Northeast.