Doesn't Rockland County have a large Orthodox Jewish community? I am thinking Trump's stance on Israel be it moving embassy to Jerusalem and deals with a number of Arab countries to recognize Israel would help him there. But looking at precinct data in 2016 he might also already be maxed out in this community.
I think it's mostly because they hate the anti-coronavirus restrictions. Although you are right that they were already a solidly Republican group, so I'm not sure how much room Trump has to grow.
As for the subject of this thread, a lot of the easternmost parts of Upstate New York are culturally extensions of Western Massachusetts in the same way that Western Massachusetts is culturally an extension of Vermont. (The first Columbia County-based historical figure who comes to mind, for instance, is Edna St. Vincent Millay.) In good Democratic years, they vote like it.
Do you know why the Western Massachusetts's liberal culture doesn't really seem to affect Hampden County where rural areas vote more 'normally' (i.e. Republican)? Obviously Hampden is a safe Democratic area but that's because of the cities such as Springfield and Holyoke. I've never really understood why Democratic strength with rural/small town voters suddenly disappears at the county boundary.
I couldn't tell you the exact historical or sociological causality even though I've lived here for most of my life, but it's a widely-noted phenomenon with its own name. (The Wikipedia article suggests potential causes, but I don't buy any of them; for example, both sides of the Tofu Curtain are economically dominated these days by higher education and "research", but only to the north of the Holyoke Range does that fact dictate the area's political leanings.)
Thanks for this. I must be honest I'd never heard of the tofu curtain before! It just looks very odd that Worthington is way more Dem than Chester despite being towns of a comparable size and a similar distance from Northampton/Amherst, same for Sandisfield being way more Dem than Tolland. Maybe it's a case of political self sorting? Maybe Western Massachusetts people who lean right choose to self-pack (perhaps unconsciously so) into the Hampden county towns to escape the 'insufferable' (in their eyes) liberal culture of the rest of the region?
