What was responsible for Vermont's strong Democratic trends in 1992 and 1996?

[AGA]

?

[Matty]

emigration from Massachusetts

[Agonized-Statism]

A turn against the religious right.

[Redban]

Didn't the entire Northeast swing Democrat? NY was a battleground / tilt D state before 1992.

[TDAS04]

New Hampshire's trends those years were even stronger.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

[MIKESOWELL]

The Christian Coalition and evangelical push to the right by the GOP during the 1980s into the 1990s.

[Free Bird]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

Basically this. The northeast has always been socially liberal compared to other places, so the religious right turn of the GOP turned off a lot of Republicans in the region and made them into Democrats. Combine that with people from NY(C), who are economic/union liberals, the type of liberals that made MA and RI, thanks to their having significant urban cores, more Democratic than the rest of the region before they (kinda sans NH) flipped too, coming in, and presto chango.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

Basically this. The northeast has always been socially liberal compared to other places, so the religious right turn of the GOP turned off a lot of Republicans in the region and made them into Democrats. Combine that with people from NY(C), who are economic/union liberals, the type of liberals that made MA and RI, thanks to their having significant urban cores, more Democratic than the rest of the region before they (kinda sans NH) flipped too, coming in, and presto chango.

Not "always", but certainly for a few decades by that point.

[RINO Tom]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

Basically this. The northeast has always been socially liberal compared to other places, so the religious right turn of the GOP turned off a lot of Republicans in the region and made them into Democrats. Combine that with people from NY(C), who are economic/union liberals, the type of liberals that made MA and RI, thanks to their having significant urban cores, more Democratic than the rest of the region before they (kinda sans NH) flipped too, coming in, and presto chango.

Not "always", but certainly for a few decades by that point.

Yeah, explain “socially liberal” to someone in the 1700s or 1800s, and they won’t think of New England.

(Disclaimer: there is little evidence contemporaries would have thought of opposition to slavery as some ancestor to the DNC’s platform on social issues in 2020, lol.)

[kcguy]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

Basically this. The northeast has always been socially liberal compared to other places, so the religious right turn of the GOP turned off a lot of Republicans in the region and made them into Democrats. Combine that with people from NY(C), who are economic/union liberals, the type of liberals that made MA and RI, thanks to their having significant urban cores, more Democratic than the rest of the region before they (kinda sans NH) flipped too, coming in, and presto chango.

Not "always", but certainly for a few decades by that point.

Certainly not always.  Earlier in the 20th century, Boston was known as a center for prudery.  Hence the phrase "Banned in Boston."

[Intell]

A combination of religious realignment and also in migration as mentioned before though a lot of this came from New York as well.

Basically this. The northeast has always been socially liberal compared to other places, so the religious right turn of the GOP turned off a lot of Republicans in the region and made them into Democrats. Combine that with people from NY(C), who are economic/union liberals, the type of liberals that made MA and RI, thanks to their having significant urban cores, more Democratic than the rest of the region before they (kinda sans NH) flipped too, coming in, and presto chango.

Not "always", but certainly for a few decades by that point.

Certainly not always.  Earlier in the 20th century, Boston was known as a center for prudery.  Hence the phrase "Banned in Boston."

Then it got controlled by irish-americans which were far from socially inclusive- so it transfored from one form of social conservatism to one form of cultural conservatism.

[DPKdebator]

A larger factor in Vermont's shift to the Democrats can be explained by generational turnover. The migration of "flatlanders" to Vermont was not a sudden thing that started in the 80s/90s, it was primarily a phenomenon seen during the 60s and 70s. As you may notice, the initial period of migration does not really overlap with the state's apparent sudden political transformation. There was a good amount of Democrats elected to state office starting in the early 1960s, but on a state legislative/congressoinal/presidential level, the state remained firmly Republican a lot longer. The initial success of Democrats in Vermont has less to do with a growing flatlander population and more to do with liberal Republicans defecting, as was the case with Philip H. Hoff for governor in 1962 and Lyndon B. Johnson for president in 1964. John B. Anderson's strong numbers in Vermont in 1980 are another example of liberal Republicans defecting. Vermont's political trend in the late 80s and early 90s was a combination of dissatisfaction with the religious right's influence (liberal Republicans defecting) and demographic changes. The large Yankee Republican population kept the GOP afloat in Vermont for a while, but as older generations passed away, in their place were generations comprised of flatlanders and their descendants, and people who may have been liberal Republicans in another time but now vote Democratic. Vestiges of the old Yankee Republican generations can be seen as late as 2000 and 2004, when Bush got 119,775 and 121,180 votes and exit polls indicated Bush won the over 65 vote in Vermont. Even McCain got more votes in 2008 than Trump did in 2016 (98,974 vs 95,369 votes).