Why is Issaquena County, Mississippi not swinging left?

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

Located in the Mississippi Delta and the least-populated county in the state, Issaquena has a majority-black population and routinely votes Democratic. However, while other Delta counties have been swinging left (for example, in 2012 with Obama, this year with Espy), Issaquena has had little movement or even a slight R trend overall (it only narrowly voted for Baria and has voted Republican in 2014, for example). What could be causing this?

[DINGO Joe]

Because, it's trending to the grave.  The county barely has 1000 people and only because of a small correctional facility.  The county has no schools public or private--you get bussed to another county.  Young people get out unless they inherit the family farm, and the farms have always been owned by white people.

Really shouldn't be a county anymore, but counties never dissolve. 

It is famous for having the highest percentage of it's population in slavery back in the day--92.5% of the county were slaves in the 1860 census.

[Vosem]

Well, with regards to 2014, Cochran performed significantly better than normal for a Republican with African-Americans, which wasn't particularly noticed because his opponent performed significantly better than normal for a Democrat with northeastern whites.

As for the answer to the question, Issaquena is an extraordinarily poor county even by Mississippi Delta standards and has a tiny population, so it's emptying out and experiencing rapid population decline. My initial theory was that whites are leaving slower and so the county is getting whiter, but this doesn't seem to be the case (in fact it was blacker at the 2010 Census than in 2000). Rise in median age doesn't seem to explain the trend either, since studies have found that older blacks tend to be more Democratic than younger blacks.

The county does not seem to be ruralizing either, since the only town, Mayersville, is losing population slower than the county as a whole.

The answer might just be that it's somewhat less black than the counties to its north, and Mayersville is significantly more black than the county as a whole, so by percentage of the population it's probably unusually "white rural" for a Delta county. If we look at the 2010 Census, there are 1406 people in the county, of whom 64.4% (905) are black and 34.6% (487) are white. However, Mayersville is 90.2% (493) black and only 9.7% (53) white; therefore, the rural parts of the county are actually narrowly white majority, having 412 black residents and 434 white residents. You can therefore expect its behavior to be much more "white rural" than typical counties in the Delta.

[Cokeland Saxton]

Whether it's swinging left or right doesn't even matter anymore. It has only about 1,300 people left, way down from the 10,000 it had at the start of the 20th century. It has no schools and the students in the county go to school in either Sharkey County (which itself is down to less than 5,000 people) or Washington County (the most populous county in the delta region, now below 50,000 people). Issaquena County is also the poorest county in Mississippi and the third-poorest in the United States, after Wheeler County, Georgia in rural southern Georgia and Ziebach County, South Dakota, located almost entirely within the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in western South Dakota. It really shouldn't even be a county anymore. Young people leave because there's nothing there for them to do unless they want to work on a farm their whole life.

[OneJ]

Pretty much what the last three posters said.

[Continential]

What happened when a county has zero people or close to zero

[Jay 🏳️‍⚧️]

What happened when a county has zero people or close to zero

It will always exist unless the population truly hit zero. There's a Texas County with a population of around 150. It still exists.

[DC Al Fine]

How do they run the county in those situations. At some point it just wouldn't work no?

[muon2]

How do they run the county in those situations. At some point it just wouldn't work no?

Kalawao county (HI) has a census count under 100, but most of those are workers in support of the national historical park or with the state department of health. It's the site of the formerly exiled victims of Hansen's disease (leprosy).  As of last spring there were only 7 permanent resident patients left. The county has no elected government and the mayor is the state Director of the Department of Health, and judicial services are provided by Maui which covers Molokai to which Kalawao is attached.