Clark County, AR

[Alcibiades]

I reckon that this might be the rural Southern county (with the possible exception of a few in Western NC) with the highest proportion of whites who voted for Hillary in 2016. Trump won it by 9 points, despite the county being 70% white and 24% black. Its neighbours, Dallas and Oucahita Counties, which had roughly similar results, actually voted more Republican despite both being around 40% black. What’s more, the county barely swung between 2012 and 2016, with Trump gaining the exact same vote share as Romney and Hillary only doing 3 points worse than Obama. I know Arkadelphia has a college, but this does not seem to explain all of it and this county must have a much higher than average share of Blue Dogs and Yellow Dogs than virtually anywhere else in the South. Why?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

According to its Wikipedia page, it has the stereotypical college county age pyramid, so I guess the HSU (liberal arts) in Arkadelphia is by far the main culprit.

[lfromnj]

There is also Woodruff in Arkansas which is the most #populist county btw that is a touch more black but also a touch more D.

[Alcibiades]

There is also Woodruff in Arkansas which is the most #populist county btw that is a touch more black but also a touch more D.

Yes - I should have mentioned Woodruff, it and Clark are political twins. According to these maps (https://www.deviantart.com/reagentah/art/2016-Non-Hispanic-White-Vote-Map-by-County-696812432 and https://www.deviantart.com/reagentah/art/2016-Non-Hispanic-White-Non-College-Degree-Vote-746894794) Trump got in the 60s in terms of non-Hispanic white vote share in both - a result unparalleled in the rural South for a Democrat in this day and age (in the MS and AL, most counties’ white vote went over 90% for Trump, in Arkansas and the Upper South it was generally in either the 70s and 80s). In terms of non-college white vote, Trump got in the 70s in Woodruff, but remarkably only in the 60s in Clark - again, Western NC was the only other place in the rural South with similar numbers.

[lfromnj]

There is also Woodruff in Arkansas which is the most #populist county btw that is a touch more black but also a touch more D.

Yes - I should have mentioned Woodruff, it and Clark are political twins. According to these maps (https://www.deviantart.com/reagentah/art/2016-Non-Hispanic-White-Vote-Map-by-County-696812432 and https://www.deviantart.com/reagentah/art/2016-Non-Hispanic-White-Non-College-Degree-Vote-746894794) Trump got in the 60s in terms of non-Hispanic white vote share in both - a result unparalleled in the rural South for a Democrat in this day and age (in the MS and AL, most counties’ white vote went over 90% for Trump, in Arkansas and the Upper South it was generally in either the 70s and 80s). In terms of non-college white vote, Trump got in the 70s in Woodruff, but remarkably only in the 60s in Clark - again, Western NC was the only other place in the rural South with similar numbers.

Clark voted for Romney and Mccain. Woodruff managed to stick out to 2012.