1988 U.S. Presidential Election in the Midwest, Results by Precinct/Township/City

[Gracile]

Some people on Election Twitter made an interactive precinct map of Midwestern states in the 1988 election that I am sure many people here would find greatly interesting:

https://wwu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=3e972b894d2845eca2aa03a533b4dfd4

It was also hinted that more states might be added to this map.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I saw the results in and around Cook County. Let's just say it's very easy to see where White areas stop and minority areas begin.

[NorCalifornio]

I saw the results in and around Cook County. Let's just say it's very easy to see where White areas stop and minority areas begin.

Not along the North Shore it isn't.

[Alcibiades]

One interesting thing I noticed looking at this (among many other very interesting things — this is a fantastic resource!) was that there was a lot more variation in how college towns and campuses voted back then. While the likes of Northwestern, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa were already pretty solidly Democratic back then, many other universities saw Republicans win precincts covering at least part of campus — Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Notre Dame, Purdue, Michigan State, and pretty much all the other land grant universities.

Some of these are expected — Purdue and Notre Dame in particular (both of which Bush won comfortably) have long had conservative reputations on account of being engineering-focused and Catholic schools respectively — but whereas, for instance, Urbana-Champaign and Bloomington seem to be generic liberal state flagship college towns today, that evidently wasn’t the case back then.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I saw the results in and around Cook County. Let's just say it's very easy to see where White areas stop and minority areas begin.

Not along the North Shore it isn't.

True. I had in mind the south and west sides of Chicago when I posted that.

[Gracile]

I saw the results in and around Cook County. Let's just say it's very easy to see where White areas stop and minority areas begin.

Eh, not necessarily. The progressive white neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago were still overwhelmingly Democratic. Plus, you have suburban communities like Evanston and Oak Park that had notably more liberal white populations compared to some of their neighboring suburbs (and both of these cities became significantly more Democratic over the course of the 80s - Evanston going from 47-35 Carter to 67-32 Dukakis and Oak Park going 43-40 Reagan to 59-40 Dukakis, between 1980 and 1988 respectively).

The Cook County precinct results are still a fascinating snapshot in time, though. HW Bush was notably the last Republican presidential candidate to win Suburban (non-Chicago) Cook in 1988, winning by a 17-point margin. Because of that, many Republican areas here greatly changed due to demographic changes (Cicero, Berwyn, the  South Suburbs in particular) and white inner suburbanites' gradually becoming a more reliable part of the Democratic fold from the 90s onward.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I saw the results in and around Cook County. Let's just say it's very easy to see where White areas stop and minority areas begin.

Eh, not necessarily. The progressive white neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago were still overwhelmingly Democratic. Plus, you have suburban communities like Evanston and Oak Park that had notably more liberal white populations compared to some of their neighboring suburbs (and both of these cities became significantly more Democratic over the course of the 80s - Evanston going from 47-35 Carter to 67-32 Dukakis and Oak Park going 43-40 Reagan to 59-40 Dukakis, between 1980 and 1988 respectively).

The Cook County precinct results are still a fascinating snapshot in time, though. HW Bush was notably the last Republican presidential candidate to win Suburban (non-Chicago) Cook in 1988, winning by a 17-point margin. Because of that, many Republican areas here greatly changed due to demographic changes (Cicero, Berwyn, the  South Suburbs in particular) and white inner suburbanites' gradually becoming a more reliable part of the Democratic fold from the 90s onward.

On a bit of a sidenote, how has Arlington Heights voted over the past, say, fourty years?

[It’s so Joever]

This is amazing, where is this information even found?

[Gracile]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

[It’s so Joever]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

It also may be generational turnover like with what is/was (who knows anymore) happening with the Vietnamese communities.

[Gass3268]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

Can't imagine some of the Republicans praising Putin helps them there now either.

[It’s so Joever]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

Can't imagine some of the Republicans praising Putin helps them there now either.

It’s already extremely Democratic at this point. What I’m more interested in is places like Parma, OH. I know it’s more Polish than Ukrainian, but they are similar and Poland/Ukraine obv have each other’s backs generally.

[jamestroll]

The now solidly Democratic southwest side of St. Louis City was quite Republican at that time. It is now only less solidly Democratic compared to the rest of the city of St. Louis.

haha, funny to see that the town of Ferguson was very close. Eyeballing it, Bush 1 may have won it, but it was close. Very close.

[Gracile]

You can also vaguely discern the evangelical parts of Northwest Iowa, as these are overwhelmingly Republican compared to the rest of the state and generally had much smaller trends toward the Democrats (notably Sioux County, which has several 85%+ GOP precincts and actually trended Republican from 1984). It's an interesting reflection of the growing movement of religious conservatives toward the GOP from the Reagan era onward, even as rural areas in the Midwest moved toward the Democrats due to the farm crisis in this election.

[Vosem]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

Can't imagine some of the Republicans praising Putin helps them there now either.

It’s already extremely Democratic at this point. What I’m more interested in is places like Parma, OH. I know it’s more Polish than Ukrainian, but they are similar and Poland/Ukraine obv have each other’s backs generally.

Parma has a pretty large specifically Ukrainian community: driving along State Road in Parma, you'll see numerous Ukrainian churches/food stores/community activity generally. (I single out that road in particular because it's possible to drive down it and start counting the Ukrainian flags: you'll hit a double-digit number very easily, while their display in other areas is much less prominent. Displays of Ukrainian-ness have become much more common since 2022, which is how these things tend to work).

[It’s so Joever]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

Can't imagine some of the Republicans praising Putin helps them there now either.

It’s already extremely Democratic at this point. What I’m more interested in is places like Parma, OH. I know it’s more Polish than Ukrainian, but they are similar and Poland/Ukraine obv have each other’s backs generally.

Parma has a pretty large specifically Ukrainian community: driving along State Road in Parma, you'll see numerous Ukrainian churches/food stores/community activity generally. (I single out that road in particular because it's possible to drive down it and start counting the Ukrainian flags: you'll hit a double-digit number very easily, while their display in other areas is much less prominent. Displays of Ukrainian-ness have become much more common since 2022, which is how these things tend to work).

Even better. Wonder how it votes in 2024…

[Roll Roons]

Another interesting result from Chicago that is very much of its time is this cluster of noticeably more Republican precincts in West Town:



This is in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, which historically had a large Ukrainian immigrant community (as well as some other Eastern European groups like Polish people). The area's Republican lean in the 1980s is likely due to anti-Soviet, anti-communist sentiment prevalent among many Eastern European American voters in that era. Nowadays, this area is pretty indistinct from other urban neighborhoods in that it is overwhelmingly Democratic. Part of this is due to the Cold War ending, but also because the Ukrainian Village has become a bit of a hipster enclave. Its residents' politics are much more left-wing (Bernie Sanders did well in parts of the red sections of this map in his primary runs, for example).

Can't imagine some of the Republicans praising Putin helps them there now either.

It’s already extremely Democratic at this point. What I’m more interested in is places like Parma, OH. I know it’s more Polish than Ukrainian, but they are similar and Poland/Ukraine obv have each other’s backs generally.

Parma has a pretty large specifically Ukrainian community: driving along State Road in Parma, you'll see numerous Ukrainian churches/food stores/community activity generally. (I single out that road in particular because it's possible to drive down it and start counting the Ukrainian flags: you'll hit a double-digit number very easily, while their display in other areas is much less prominent. Displays of Ukrainian-ness have become much more common since 2022, which is how these things tend to work).

Even better. Wonder how it votes in 2024…

IIRC, Parma voted for Trump in 2020 and for Tim Ryan in 2022.

[Continential]

Out of curiosity, are there any results by precinct for any other pre-2008 years?

[Gracile]

This map is unfortunately not public anymore, but the person who made it still makes 1980s election maps on Twitter. He recently posted this 1988 precinct map of Kentucky:

https://twitter.com/Thorongil16/status/1690169713194643457

[Sumner 1868]

California would be very interesting to map out.