How the Richest and Poorest Counties Voted in Each State

[RINO Tom]

Before anyone jumps ALL up on my back, two things:

1) I'm not doubting any increased trends since 2018 or whatever, but not every state had a Senate election, and I am not about to mess around with House district stuff.  This is just for fun and to make a cool map, lol.

2) I got the richest and poorest counties from the following articles...

Richest: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/24/richest-counties-us-median-household-income/38870227/
Poorest: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2020/01/02/the-poorest-county-in-every-state-4/

... on a few that I thought looked odd, I looked up other sources and changed them to be "accurate."  I didn't have time to do that for all fifty states, so if you have a correction to make, let me know!  I will gladly change it and update the map.  The list of counties I used is below the maps.

How the Richest County in Each State Voted in 2016

How the Poorest County in Each State Voted in 2016

Counties Used

Alabama
Richest: Shelby, Poorest: Dallas
Alaska
Richest: Denali, Poorest: Northwest Arctic
Arizona
Richest: Maricopa, Poorest: Apache
Arkansas
Richest: Benton, Poorest: Lafayette
California
Richest: Santa Clara, Poorest: Lake
Colorado
Richest: Douglas, Poorest: Otero
Connecticut
Richest: Fairfield, Poorest: Windham
Delaware
Richest: New Castle, Poorest: Kent
Florida
Richest: St. Johns, Poorest: DeSoto
Georgia
Richest: Forsyth, Poorest: Telfair
Hawaii
Richest: Honolulu, Poorest: Hawaii
Idaho
Richest: Ada, Poorest: Madison
Illinois
Richest: Kendall, Poorest: Pulaski
Indiana
Richest: Hamilton, Poorest: Blackford
Iowa
Richest: Dallas, Poorest: Appanoose
Kansas
Richest: Johnson, Poorest: Elk
Kentucky
Richest: Oldham, Poorest: Harlan
Louisiana
Richest: Ascension, Poorest: Natchitoches
Maine
Richest: Cumberland, Poorest: Piscataquis
Maryland
Richest: Howard, Poorest: Somerset
Massachusetts
Richest: Norfolk, Poorest: Hampden
Michigan
Richest: Livingston, Poorest: Lake
Minnesota
Richest: Scott, Poorest: Mahnomen
Mississippi
Richest: Madison, Poorest: Holmes
Missouri
Richest: St. Charles, Poorest: Shannon
Montana
Richest: Richland, Poorest: Glacier
Nebraska
Richest: Sarpy, Poorest: Sheridan
Nevada
Richest: Elko, Poorest: Nye
New Hampshire
Richest: Rockingham, Poorest: Coos
New Jersey
Richest: Hunterdon, Poorest: Cumberland
New Mexico
Richest: Los Alamos, Poorest: Quay
New York
Richest: Nassau, Poorest: Bronx
North Carolina
Richest: Wake, Poorest: Bladen
North Dakota
Richest: Williams, Poorest: Rolette
Ohio
Richest: Delaware, Poorest: Adams
Oklahoma
Richest: Canadian, Poorest: Choctaw
Oregon
Richest: Washington, Poorest: Malheur
Pennsylvania
Richest: Chester, Poorest: Forest
Rhode Island
Richest: Washington, Poorest: Providence
South Carolina
Richest: Beaufort, Poorest: Dillon
South Dakota
Richest: Lincoln, Poorest: Mellette
Tennessee
Richest: Williamson, Poorest: Hancock
Texas
Richest: Rockwall, Poorest: Starr
Utah
Richest: Summit, Poorest: San Juan
Vermont
Richest: Chittenden, Poorest: Essex
Virginia
Richest: Loudoun, Poorest: Dickenson
Washington
Richest: King, Poorest: Ferry
West Virginia
Richest: Jefferson, Poorest: McDowell
Wisconsin
Richest: Waukesha, Poorest: Iron
Wyoming
Richest: Campbell, Poorest: Albany

Notes
- As always, I could have easily made mistakes ... lol.
- With the exceptions of super-blue CA, HI, NY, MA and RI (where both voted Democratic), in every state where the richest county voted Democratic, the poorest county voted Republican.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this was “big metro area resentment” epitomized?
- Despite Trump losing the state, it’s interesting that both the richest and poorest county in NH voted for him.
- It does seem that coastal “rich counties” do tend to be more Democratic than non-coastal “rich counties,” at least at a glance (with the exception of NJ’s richest county, Hunterdon, voting Republican).  Even Chicagoland’s richest county, Kendall, voted for Trump.
- Utah surprised me.
- Again, at a glance, it would appear that INNER suburbs – specifically in very large and diverse metros – have been much more willing to move toward the Democrats, while OUTER suburbs – specifically in not-as-large metros but not exclusively – have remained much more Republican.  This wouldn’t surprise me, as I would imagine that on average they are Whiter and newer (i.e., less urban in dynamic).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I've been to St. Augustine this February and it smelled like "riiiich Republicans" everywhere but from what I've read in my life I would have thought the richest county in Florida was Collier County, where there seems to be a lot of $$$ millionaires.

[NOVA Green]

Hi RINO Tom---

Like what you're doing here....

Basically taking relatively current 2019-2020 MHI data sets and creating cool maps using 2016 PRES GE numbers as a baseline.

For anyone interested in a refresher and additional data from a thread which RINO TOM started on 6/21/17: "How Each States Richest County Voted" and I added to a bit (although was yet another incomplete project) and attempted to map the "Richest Place in the Richest County" using precinct level data....

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=267040.msg5708486#msg5708486

Another good read for anyone interested in getting caught up a bit, would be: "Super Wealthy Towns which Heavily Swung against Trump" started by Melior

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=259050.0

Another read would be "How did the Poorest Counties in the US Vote by State", which I started as a thread on 7/4/17, directly inspired by RINO Tom's "Richest County" thread. (Unfortunately an incomplete project in terms of analysis) 

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=267947.msg5725492#msg5725492

Interestingly enough it appears as though the 2019>2020 "Poorest County" MHI numbers are much less advantageous to the Democrats than the ~2015 (?) numbers I used.

@ RINO Tom---

Are you seeing significant shifts within the poorest counties in from 2015 > 2020 which moves to a Trump quasi EC "poorest county landslide" vs my map which looks like a 288 HRC win (Excluding Alaska Results-- presumably HRC)?

California is an obvious one since Tulare County was on my "poorest" list and Lake County is on the 2019/2020 "poorest" list that you used....

[Tintrlvr]

I've been to St. Augustine this February and it smelled like "riiiich Republicans" everywhere but from what I've read in my life I would have thought the richest county in Florida was Collier County, where there seems to be a lot of $$$ millionaires.

St. Augustine itself votes narrowly Democratic, actually. It's the Jacksonville sprawl in the north of St. Johns County that makes the county so Republican.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I've been to St. Augustine this February and it smelled like "riiiich Republicans" everywhere but from what I've read in my life I would have thought the richest county in Florida was Collier County, where there seems to be a lot of $$$ millionaires.

St. Augustine itself votes narrowly Democratic, actually. It's the Jacksonville sprawl in the north of St. Johns County that makes the county so Republican.

Interesting.

I guess St. Augustine is also frequented by many Republicans living in the surrounding areas.
But I decided to check on DRA 2020. St. Augustine proper appears to have voted Obama by 10 points in 2008; Clinton by a hair and Rubio by 10 points in 2016; Gillum and Nelson both by 8/9 points in 2018.
So yes, it's narrowly Democratic. I find that kinda right-leaning for a touristic place.
So out of curiosity I compared St. Augustine to another place where I have been, Key West.
Key West voted D by at least 20 points in every race I mentioned, and Obama 08 and Nelson 18 both took over 2/3 of the vote.

My take is that St. Augustine is a closely divided city surrounded by uniformly Republican territory, specifically Republicans-in-villas territory.