Lean R, closer to Likely than tilt.
Nope. Anchorage voted for the Democratic nominee for the first time since 1964!
Does anybody know that city used to be so heavily Republican?
Moreover, was this election result just a fluke, or will Anchorage remain in the Democratic column?
It definitely seems to be a trend in Anchorage, though it is not moving anywhere near as quickly as areas like Suburban Dallas, Atlanta, or Philadelphia.
I think Anchorage remain ed so Republican for a big city for several reasons. First, it's population has been one of the whitest of many large city unless you include one's like Laredo, Corpus Christi, and other Rio Grande cities that had lots of self-identifying white Hispanics who still voted heavily democratic. That's only changed notably in the last and 15 years. Furthermore, much of the Min Dougherty population, including a disproportionate share of the Asian population, or transient who came into work the fisheries and other such Industries for a few years and head back home to places like the Philippines. Relatively few stayed and become citizens and voters, though again my understanding is that starting to change.
Secondly, it remains Republican for the same reason that places like Houston and Dallas did. Oil and natural gas production. Needless to say that made the place not exceptionally hospitable to Democrats compared to similarly sized cities.
Thirdly it's not really a college town compared to many major cities. University of alaska-anchorage has grown in recent years which I think is accelerated the Democratic Trend, but for years it was a branch of the main campus in Fairbanks.
tl;dr it's traditionally been white and Alaska.
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