Columbia County, New York

[lfromnj]

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.

New Square in Rockland might have gotten bribed by Bill 20 years ago so they voted for Hillary but they voted for Trump this year probably.

[lfromnj]

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.

Trump actually underperformed badly with Orthodox Jews in 2016 compared to McCain and Romney (although he still won them, as he'd say, BY A LOT!!!), so even if his performance with them this time had just been a reversion to the mean it still would have produced a fairly significant swing.

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.

It wasn't really an underperformance by Trump but more an overperformance by Clinton.