Why did Wilson lose West Virginia in 1916?

[TDAS04]

Why did he?

[OSR stands with Israel]

WV was a solidly Republican state then and would stay like that until 1932 and wouldnt become Republican state again for the rest of the century

[morgankingsley]

WV was a solidly Republican state then and would stay like that until 1932 and wouldnt become Republican state again for the rest of the century

Honestly the fact that Wilson got so close is the real miracle

[Skill and Chance]

WV was a solidly Republican state then and would stay like that until 1932 and wouldnt become Republican state again for the rest of the century

Honestly the fact that Wilson got so close is the real miracle

This isn't so surprising.  Think of 1916 as an attempted urban vs. rural realignment that just completely fell apart the day we entered WWI. 

[RINO Tom]

I mean, he did win an electoral vote!  Also, I remember as recently as 2000 (granted, I was young), people would often refer to WV as not "sufficiently Southern enough to vote GOP."  There was absolutely a sentiment that WV's blue collar voters voted "like Northerners" and not like Deep South ones.  Maybe it just wasn't quite Southern enough to vote for Wilson, too?

[Intell]

I mean, he did win an electoral vote!  Also, I remember as recently as 2000 (granted, I was young), people would often refer to WV as not "sufficiently Southern enough to vote GOP."  There was absolutely a sentiment that WV's blue collar voters voted "like Northerners" and not like Deep South ones.  Maybe it just wasn't quite Southern enough to vote for Wilson, too?

WV was a lean republican state on civil war issues until 1932 (depression) and 1936 (unions) from which it reamined a solidly democratic state until 2000 (unions started to die and as such so did class politics and WV shifted hard to the republicans from every elections there on.) WV does not act like a south, WV is the politics of industrial appalachia in one state. Western PA, Eastern KY, SW VA, SE Ohio etc, it is not the politcs of the south.