Why has Oklahoma been so red for so long?
Calthrina950:
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 08, 2022, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: Many, Many Nested Layers of Hauntology on October 08, 2022, 10:28:35 AM
Quote from: Zebulan9003 on October 08, 2022, 08:56:47 AM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on September 27, 2022, 10:55:02 AM
Oklahoma is a weird state politically to me. In 1948 Truman won it handedly yet then it inexplicably swung hard to Eisenhower in 52 and other then LBJ the only Democrat that’s come within striking distance since was Carter.
Maybe in some ways it was similar to West Virginia in terms of being a southern border state with its own distinct political history and one that seemingly abruptly swung hard from being one of the most consistently reliable Democratic states to one of the most Republican.
It started out with Tulsa county which provided a huge Republican margin along with OKC. In fact, Ford barely won OK because of them. However, as Dems have gained ground there, they absolutely got obliterated in the rurals after Bill Clinton and Al Gore (the last Dem to win any counties). And they just got more Republican after that.
Before 2000, there was also a clear North-Republican South-Democratic divide.
Goldwater won Tulsa County by double digits! It's voted for every GOP nominee since Willkie!
With the violent end of its "Black Wall Street" era, it quickly became the regional center for oil+gas and Evangelicalism that it more or less still is, with racial tensions of course still highly magnified.
The state as a whole's anomalously averse reaction to JFK points towards both classical Papist-bashing and a distaste for the increasingly urban and Northern party base and machinery, as continued via Wallace eating heavily into the state's Democratic constituencies and Jimmy Peanuts and Bubba being the only Democrats since to perform respectably. The last Democrat to win any counties here was of course Gore, an upland Southerner with some remaining goodwill from the Clinton administration.
The states results in 1928 which seem unfathomable for a southern border state in that era suggest that the anti-Catholicism runs pretty deep.
Hoover won Oklahoma by nearly 30% that year. It was his best Southern state, and the result there was certainly because of strong anti-Catholicism. In each of the subsequent elections (1932 and 1964), Oklahoma swung back to the Democrats, particularly to Franklin Roosevelt, who improved upon Smith in the state by 38 percentage points. Johnson, on his part, won Oklahoma by about the same margin Eisenhower did in 1956 (56-44%).
TDAS04:
Eisenhower’s wins were the last times Oklahoma voted to the left of the nation. Prior to the 1960s, it was considerably more Democratic than the northern Plains, which makes sense considering that Oklahoma is primarily a Southern state.
Asenath Waite:
Quote from: Calthrina950 on October 08, 2022, 11:51:52 PM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 08, 2022, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: Many, Many Nested Layers of Hauntology on October 08, 2022, 10:28:35 AM
Quote from: Zebulan9003 on October 08, 2022, 08:56:47 AM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on September 27, 2022, 10:55:02 AM
Oklahoma is a weird state politically to me. In 1948 Truman won it handedly yet then it inexplicably swung hard to Eisenhower in 52 and other then LBJ the only Democrat that’s come within striking distance since was Carter.
Maybe in some ways it was similar to West Virginia in terms of being a southern border state with its own distinct political history and one that seemingly abruptly swung hard from being one of the most consistently reliable Democratic states to one of the most Republican.
It started out with Tulsa county which provided a huge Republican margin along with OKC. In fact, Ford barely won OK because of them. However, as Dems have gained ground there, they absolutely got obliterated in the rurals after Bill Clinton and Al Gore (the last Dem to win any counties). And they just got more Republican after that.
Before 2000, there was also a clear North-Republican South-Democratic divide.
Goldwater won Tulsa County by double digits! It's voted for every GOP nominee since Willkie!
With the violent end of its "Black Wall Street" era, it quickly became the regional center for oil+gas and Evangelicalism that it more or less still is, with racial tensions of course still highly magnified.
The state as a whole's anomalously averse reaction to JFK points towards both classical Papist-bashing and a distaste for the increasingly urban and Northern party base and machinery, as continued via Wallace eating heavily into the state's Democratic constituencies and Jimmy Peanuts and Bubba being the only Democrats since to perform respectably. The last Democrat to win any counties here was of course Gore, an upland Southerner with some remaining goodwill from the Clinton administration.
The states results in 1928 which seem unfathomable for a southern border state in that era suggest that the anti-Catholicism runs pretty deep.
Hoover won Oklahoma by nearly 30% that year. It was his best Southern state, and the result there was certainly because of strong anti-Catholicism. In each of the subsequent elections (1932 and 1964), Oklahoma swung back to the Democrats, particularly to Franklin Roosevelt, who improved upon Smith in the state by 38 percentage points. Johnson, on his part, won Oklahoma by about the same margin Eisenhower did in 1956 (56-44%).
I wonder if Johnson’s ties to the oil business helped him because otherwise there’s no reason Goldwater shouldn’t have won it.
TDAS04:
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 09, 2022, 04:11:18 AM
Quote from: Calthrina950 on October 08, 2022, 11:51:52 PM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 08, 2022, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: Many, Many Nested Layers of Hauntology on October 08, 2022, 10:28:35 AM
Quote from: Zebulan9003 on October 08, 2022, 08:56:47 AM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on September 27, 2022, 10:55:02 AM
Oklahoma is a weird state politically to me. In 1948 Truman won it handedly yet then it inexplicably swung hard to Eisenhower in 52 and other then LBJ the only Democrat that’s come within striking distance since was Carter.
Maybe in some ways it was similar to West Virginia in terms of being a southern border state with its own distinct political history and one that seemingly abruptly swung hard from being one of the most consistently reliable Democratic states to one of the most Republican.
It started out with Tulsa county which provided a huge Republican margin along with OKC. In fact, Ford barely won OK because of them. However, as Dems have gained ground there, they absolutely got obliterated in the rurals after Bill Clinton and Al Gore (the last Dem to win any counties). And they just got more Republican after that.
Before 2000, there was also a clear North-Republican South-Democratic divide.
Goldwater won Tulsa County by double digits! It's voted for every GOP nominee since Willkie!
With the violent end of its "Black Wall Street" era, it quickly became the regional center for oil+gas and Evangelicalism that it more or less still is, with racial tensions of course still highly magnified.
The state as a whole's anomalously averse reaction to JFK points towards both classical Papist-bashing and a distaste for the increasingly urban and Northern party base and machinery, as continued via Wallace eating heavily into the state's Democratic constituencies and Jimmy Peanuts and Bubba being the only Democrats since to perform respectably. The last Democrat to win any counties here was of course Gore, an upland Southerner with some remaining goodwill from the Clinton administration.
The states results in 1928 which seem unfathomable for a southern border state in that era suggest that the anti-Catholicism runs pretty deep.
Hoover won Oklahoma by nearly 30% that year. It was his best Southern state, and the result there was certainly because of strong anti-Catholicism. In each of the subsequent elections (1932 and 1964), Oklahoma swung back to the Democrats, particularly to Franklin Roosevelt, who improved upon Smith in the state by 38 percentage points. Johnson, on his part, won Oklahoma by about the same margin Eisenhower did in 1956 (56-44%).
I wonder if Johnson’s ties to the oil business helped him because otherwise there’s no reason Goldwater shouldn’t have won it.
Goldwater lost a lot of states he should have won.
Goldwater did perform much better in Oklahoma than Dewey in 1948, even though Dewey carried the row of four Plains states just to the north (which also backed Johnson).
Calthrina950:
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 09, 2022, 04:11:18 AM
Quote from: Calthrina950 on October 08, 2022, 11:51:52 PM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on October 08, 2022, 01:35:57 PM
Quote from: Many, Many Nested Layers of Hauntology on October 08, 2022, 10:28:35 AM
Quote from: Zebulan9003 on October 08, 2022, 08:56:47 AM
Quote from: Asenath Waite on September 27, 2022, 10:55:02 AM
Oklahoma is a weird state politically to me. In 1948 Truman won it handedly yet then it inexplicably swung hard to Eisenhower in 52 and other then LBJ the only Democrat that’s come within striking distance since was Carter.
Maybe in some ways it was similar to West Virginia in terms of being a southern border state with its own distinct political history and one that seemingly abruptly swung hard from being one of the most consistently reliable Democratic states to one of the most Republican.
It started out with Tulsa county which provided a huge Republican margin along with OKC. In fact, Ford barely won OK because of them. However, as Dems have gained ground there, they absolutely got obliterated in the rurals after Bill Clinton and Al Gore (the last Dem to win any counties). And they just got more Republican after that.
Before 2000, there was also a clear North-Republican South-Democratic divide.
Goldwater won Tulsa County by double digits! It's voted for every GOP nominee since Willkie!
With the violent end of its "Black Wall Street" era, it quickly became the regional center for oil+gas and Evangelicalism that it more or less still is, with racial tensions of course still highly magnified.
The state as a whole's anomalously averse reaction to JFK points towards both classical Papist-bashing and a distaste for the increasingly urban and Northern party base and machinery, as continued via Wallace eating heavily into the state's Democratic constituencies and Jimmy Peanuts and Bubba being the only Democrats since to perform respectably. The last Democrat to win any counties here was of course Gore, an upland Southerner with some remaining goodwill from the Clinton administration.
The states results in 1928 which seem unfathomable for a southern border state in that era suggest that the anti-Catholicism runs pretty deep.
Hoover won Oklahoma by nearly 30% that year. It was his best Southern state, and the result there was certainly because of strong anti-Catholicism. In each of the subsequent elections (1932 and 1964), Oklahoma swung back to the Democrats, particularly to Franklin Roosevelt, who improved upon Smith in the state by 38 percentage points. Johnson, on his part, won Oklahoma by about the same margin Eisenhower did in 1956 (56-44%).
I wonder if Johnson’s ties to the oil business helped him because otherwise there’s no reason Goldwater shouldn’t have won it.
I would say that Johnson being a Southerner from neighboring Texas helped him in Oklahoma, as it did throughout the Upper South (although obviously not in the Deep South). In 1988, Michael Dukakis overperformed in Oklahoma with help from Lloyd Bentsen, although George H.W. Bush still won the state easily.
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