How did coal miners vote?

[mileslunn]

I am pretty sure they voted for Romney.  Lets remember this demographic is overwhelmingly white male and pretty much however you slice it, the white male vote favoured Romney.  Only in the more liberal states did Obama win amongst white males.  Unlike in some countries in Europe, income tends to have less impact on one's voting behavior the age, marital status, religion, gender, and race.  Obama's stronger showing amongst low income people probably has more to do with the fact there are more minorities in lower income groups, more young people (most people in their 20s unless they live at home tend to have lower lower incomes as you work your way up the chain), females, unmarried single occupant households (even if their individual income is above the national average, there are more individuals who make under $50,000 a year than above so a household with two working occupants will likely more than one).  Also even if Romney is seen as being for the rich, there isn't a strong left wing solidarity in the US.  Most miners cannot stand the environmentalists and would much rather vote for someone who will ignore them than listen to them.  In the Pacific Northwest, Forks is a strong logging town and it usually goes over 60% GOP due to their dislike of the environmentalist.  Likewise in the Deep South, the white vote went massively GOP and I assume that includes those in unions.  Likewise those in public sector unions are far more likely to vote Democrat than those in private sector unions.  The police, firefighters, and border patrol are about the only public sector unions I can think of that Romney may have won amongst.  One's like postal workers I am sure went pretty heavily for Obama.

[mileslunn]

Likewise in the Deep South, the white vote went massively GOP and I assume that includes those in unions.

There aren't that many union members in the Deep South anymore, because of the violent anti-union thuggery there.

True there are not a lot, but even of the one's there are I am pretty sure Romney handidly won them.  Lets remember not all union members vote the way their leadership tells them to.  Many nowadays have above average salaries so someone who wants lower taxes would appeal to them.  Also the idea of smaller government is a view widely held by many Americans across the country from a wide variety of groups so running a platform of bigger government and making the US more like Canada and Europe it is not something that will win you many votes even amongst unionized workers.  Most union workers are quite patriotic too and want to maintain American values.