Time for a GOP Northern Strategy

[soniquemd21921]

The Upper Midwest is the North as well. I mainly meant places like upstate New York, suburban Pennsylvania, Maine and especially Vermont.

No Vermont is like an extension of Canada nowadays politically. Its way too liberal for the GOP in national races nowadays(US Seante and US House.) I wonder why New Hampshire politically isn't an extension of Canada since its right near it just like Vermont is.

Boston suburbs/exurbs.  The two largest counties in the state are Hilsborough (which went narrowly for Obama) and Rockingham, which went for Romney by a little over 4.5%.  The rest of the state is quite a bit more liberal and Democratic.  Not exactly Vermont, but similar to Maine.

In the early 20th century Cheshire was the most Republican county in New Hampshire, followed by Carroll for most of the 20th century (it was the lone county in New England that Goldwater won). And since the Clinton years it's been Rockingham, which is now the most Republican county in New England (although Rockingham has always been Republican). And until the Reagan years Hillsborough was the most Democratic county because of the big Catholic/union vote in Manchester and Nashua before shfiting to Cheshire.

[hopper]

The Upper Midwest is the North as well. I mainly meant places like upstate New York, suburban Pennsylvania, Maine and especially Vermont.

No Vermont is like an extension of Canada nowadays politically. Its way too liberal for the GOP in national races nowadays(US Seante and US House.) I wonder why New Hampshire politically isn't an extension of Canada since its right near it just like Vermont is.

Vermont was hands down the most Republican state in the nation from the founding of the party in 1854 until the early 60's - one of only two states FDR never won (the other being Maine), and it remained strongly Republican until the 80's. For some reason, this fact tends to get either downplayed and/or ignored altogether today, as it seems that some people cannot think of Vermont as anything but "that crazy state that has Bernie Sanders as its senator".

I knew that!

Most political historians are well aware of this fact, but it really does seem to get largely forgotten and overlooked today.

Wouldn't you agree that the transition from "most Republican state" to "most Canadian state" was completed with Bernie Sanders' election in 1990 and Howard Dean becoming governor a year later?

No Dean only became governor because of Peter Snelling's(R) death in office. Yes Dean's governorship from 1991 to 2002 might have had something to do with Vermont's lurch to the left though.

Sanders was the Mayor  of Burlington before he got elected to Congress.