Why was Jefferson county Democrat for a while?

[Vice President Christian Man]

I originally posted this in political geography but realized this was a better place to ask. While East Texas was historically Democrat, most of the counties flipped by the time W won re-election in 2004. Jefferson County stuck out as it continued to be Dem into the Obama years and is currently a purple county at the state level. There isn't a significant minority population, but were there enough yellow dogs around Beaumont to keep it from flipping for a long time?

[If my soul was made of stone]

There isn't a significant minority population

It's actually majority-minority, and traditionally heavily polarized between Beaumont + Port Arthur (both plurality-Black) and everything else, as is typical for the Deep South. It's become less Black (raw population decreasing) and more Hispanic (raw population increasing) over the decades, thus creating a natural GOP swing that's been compounded by the substantial Hispanic swing right since 2012.

Unusually, it swung heavily Republican from 88 to 92, probably because of the 80s oil crash and subsequent rebound.

[Vice President Christian Man]

There isn't a significant minority population

It's actually majority-minority, and traditionally heavily polarized between Beaumont + Port Arthur (both plurality-Black) and everything else, as is typical for the Deep South. It's become less Black (raw population decreasing) and more Hispanic (raw population increasing) over the decades, thus creating a natural GOP swing that's been compounded by the substantial Hispanic swing right since 2012.

Unusually, it swung heavily Republican from 88 to 92, probably because of the 80s oil crash and subsequent rebound.

I was unaware of this, interesting. So it's more like a Jefferson County Florida in terms of its overall demographics (ironic considering the name).

[NOVA Green]

It does also have a significant union presence historically speaking, which is relatively unusual for TX.

Even right now there are 600 members of the United Steel Workers locked out of the Exxon Oil Refinery in Beaumont Texas.