Jefferson County, Missouri

[baris39]

I'm kinda curious about voting patterns of Jefferson County, Missouri, a suburb of Missouri.
Unlike many other suburb counties, Jefferson county used to be a D-leaning county.
Carter won by 15 in 1976 and Dukakis only lost by 3. And both candidates weren't particularly strong in the suburbs.

However, since 2010s, Jefferson County trended R even more than the state of Missouri as a whole.
It went for Obama by 3 in 2008, Romney by 13 in 2012, Trump by whooping 35 in 2016, and Trump by 33 in 2020.
While other traditionally Republican suburbs such as St. Charles County, MO swung towards Biden between 5-10 percent in 2020, it only swung D by 2 percent.
And this county is not suffering economically like Trumbull, OH. The population has been steadily growing. Also, its median income for a household is almost identical to that of the U.S. Poverty rate is two percent lower than that of the U.S.

Why is Jefferson County, Missouri voting differently from other suburbs?

[TML]

This county is still overwhelmingly white (approximately 19 out of every 20 residents are white), and only about 1 in 5 residents are college graduates. Thus, this county has a very high share of whites without higher education, thereby making it more R-leaning than many other suburban areas.

[Panda Express]

Jefferson County is exurb, not suburb

[HAnnA MArin County]

Jefferson County is exurb, not suburb

This. Arnold and Murphy are really the only suburbs in MethCo, and yes, it is overwhelmingly white and most of the county is more 'necky than suburban. I was just up there around the time of the election and the number of Trump yard signs and billboards along I-55 was beyond depressing. Hard to believe that this county did vote for Obama in 2008, albeit narrowly, but still. Jefferson County used to be Democratic to the bone but now it seems as though Democrats are endangered species up there (and elsewhere, unfortunately, in this backwards state).

[Chips]

Jefferson County is exurb, not suburb