Staten Island's South Shore

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

I was doing some research on Staten Island and thought this tidbit in an article on the South Shore was interesting:

"In the 62nd assembly district—on the borough’s south shore—Trump won almost 75 percent of the more than 50,000 votes cast, making it the most pro-Trump district in all of New York State. In fact, virtually no lower-house legislative district in the Northeast went so strongly for Trump. Even in Ohio—where Trump won by eight points—only one legislative district put up stronger numbers for Trump than the south shore: the 84th House district, the state’s largest agricultural producer, voted 80.6 percent for Trump. In rural Pennsylvania, a handful of state assembly districts gave Trump comparable numbers—the 66th assembly district, for instance, which borders the Allegheny National Forest and where the largest city is Punxsutawney, population less than 6,000. By contrast, Staten Island’s south shore is part of the nation’s largest metropolis, has a median household income over $90,000, and boasts higher education levels than New York State as a whole. Staten Island is a rock-ribbed Republican redoubt in a sea of blue."

I'm not sure how the South Shore swung in 2020 though Trump certainly did win it but given that it's a suburban area with high levels of education that definitely went heavier for Trump then for Romney it almost seems to be an example of a national outlier and an outlier in the New York tristate area as well if you compare it to the wealthy suburban towns in Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island that all swung heavily from Romney to Hillary and even moreso to Biden.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Do transplants from other metros really move to Staten Island though? 

It's probably not very likely, conservatives who move to the New York area for work are probably more likely to relocate to the suburbs. The small minority of transplants though who do care enough about politics to want to have neighbors with the same political views are likely to be true believers and probably bolster the area's preexisting character. I think that ProgressiveModerate made a good point in that self-sorting among native New Yorkers is a much larger factor. Staten Island has long been a white flight magnet and this is even reflected in the local accent (which also persists in Long Island, pronounced "Longuylin") being closer to the now dying WWC New York Irish that was more prevalent decades ago in Brooklyn and Queens but is now largely extinct there.