Suburban counties that are bluer than their core anchors?

[Arizona Iced Tea]

The only ones I can think of right now is Palm Beach and Broward being bluer than the larger and main Miami-Dade county. Summit county is bluer than Salt Lake county as well. In the Atlanta area DeKalb is more bluer than the main Fulton county due to the higher black population.

Fort Bend will probably be bluer than Harris soon as well.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Durham is bluer than Wake, though tbf it’s debatable if Durham is really a suburb of Raleigh or its own thing.

Simillar thing with Wayne and Washentaw counties in MI

[Tekken_Guy]

Ramsey County is slightly bluer than Hennepin County.

Wyandotte County, KS is bluer than Jackson County, MO.

[NorCalifornio]

The only ones I can think of right now is Palm Beach and Broward being bluer than the larger and main Miami-Dade county. Summit county is bluer than Salt Lake county as well. In the Atlanta area DeKalb is more bluer than the main Fulton county due to the higher black population.

Fort Bend will probably be bluer than Harris soon as well.

Summit County isn't SLC suburbs, it's the ski resorts on the opposite side of the Wasatch Range.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I think all of the counties mentioned so far are either not really suburbs or an effect of asymmetric geography (although I suspect Fulton may still be slightly less Democratic than DeKalb if it did not include the northern ex Milton County blob, I need to check). South Florida should work though.

[Bootes Void]

I’m thinking some of the bay area counties like Alameda or Marin county can count?

[It’s so Joever]

Not really “suburban” per se but Washtenaw technically is bluer than Wayne.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I’m thinking some of the bag area counties like Alameda or Marin county can count?

The most Democratic county in the Bay Area is consistently San Francisco, i.e. its core anchor.

[bagelman]

Durham NC and Ann Arbor MI aren't valid examples, they are both smaller cores orbiting a larger one, rather than suburbs as we normally define them. St. Paul MN is clearly urban as well.

The best examples are probably Atlanta (>90% black suburbs) and South Florida (suburbs to the north that aren't Cuban and often black). Both are obviously caused by racial demographics.

[Sol]

DeKalb is basically an anchor county too, even if it has less anchor than Fulton. Clayton actually does count though.

Durham should be whatever you consider Ramsey or Tarrant -- it's a secondary urban center rather than a suburb. Speaking of which, if you do consider Durham in that group, Ramsey counts too.

Yolo is more Democratic than Sacramento, though it's debatable if it's suburban per se.

[Oryxslayer]

Yolo is more Democratic than Sacramento, though it's debatable if it's suburban per se.

Yolo is an intersection county. It's partially suburban - you literally have West Sacramento right across the same-named river from the urban core. Then you have Woodland and other smaller towns which are better conceptualized as where the agrarian Valley reaches around Sacramento to connect more recognizable farmland areas to the north and south. Then there is Davis which is a university town and behaves more like the Bay Area to the west down I80.

All three are Democratic, but Davis is the partisan anchor.

[Torie]

And then there is Denver and the pseudo suburban county of Boulder, which are about the same.

[NorCalifornio]

Yolo is more Democratic than Sacramento, though it's debatable if it's suburban per se.

As somebody else said, part of Yolo County is suburban Sacramento, but most of it is not. The only reason it's more Democratic than Sacramento County is the college town Davis, which is even more sharply distinct from the nearby suburbs than the similar situations of Ann Arbor and Durham, NC. So I'd say it doesn't really count.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

Ramsey County is slightly bluer than Hennepin County.

Wyandotte County, KS is bluer than Jackson County, MO.

Wyandotte IMO is the core anchor in Kansas as it contains Kansas City KS, and Johnson county is the suburb. Although Johnson is rapidly trending blue and very well could get as blue as Jackson MO, and possibly even Wyandotte.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Ramsey isn't even a secondary urban core, the border in Northeast Minneapolis and St. Paul where there isn't a river you can only tell the border because of signs. And the reason it's more D is it's smaller geographically and has less suburbs and no exurbs.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I think generally speaking, there are really only 3 reasons suburbs would be more D than the immediate downtown:

1. Some sort of college creating a liberal sphere of influence
2. Suburbs being more diverse, specifically heavily Black or Hispanic
3. Favorable County borders that happen to not pick up on redder leaning exurbs and rurals while the County containing the main part of the city does.

[cvparty]

Clay and Fargo?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Clay and Fargo?

That's not really a suburb. Fargo and Moorhead are practically one city that just happens to have a river that serves as a state border running through it. They even have the same downtown area.

Most of the suburban areas are in Cass County on the ND side. Clay is mostly rural outside of Moorhead.

[Torie]

I think generally speaking, there are really only 3 reasons suburbs would be more D than the immediate downtown:

1. Some sort of college creating a liberal sphere of influence
2. Suburbs being more diverse, specifically heavily Black or Hispanic
3. Favorable County borders that happen to not pick up on redder leaning exurbs and rurals while the County containing the main part of the city does.

Be patient and wait until the rich elites are all Dem (Park Slope), and the sans culotte Pub (Staten Island). 

In that regard, Hoboken is by far the richest city in Hudson County, and it would not surprise me if in a few years it is the most Dem. At it is, rather down market Secaucus and Bayonne are the most Pub.

[ProgressiveModerate]

I think generally speaking, there are really only 3 reasons suburbs would be more D than the immediate downtown:

1. Some sort of college creating a liberal sphere of influence
2. Suburbs being more diverse, specifically heavily Black or Hispanic
3. Favorable County borders that happen to not pick up on redder leaning exurbs and rurals while the County containing the main part of the city does.

Democrats have this weird coalition in urban areas now where their strongest support comes from the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, while most working or middle class white and asian neighborhoods are more R.

Generally though, the shift seems to be Democrats core bases in cities moving away from black and hispanic communities and towards educated, upper-middle class (or outright wealthy), mostly white liberals.

I think generally, the idea of "white liberals" is overrated, and a better term would be the "professional class", since there are a large number of non-white people who I think fit into this cultural idea of what one thinks of when they think of "white liberal".



Be patient and wait until the rich elites are all Dem (Park Slope), and the sans culotte Pub (Staten Island). 

In that regard, Hoboken is by far the richest city in Hudson County, and it would not surprise me if in a few years it is the most Dem. At it is, rather down market Secaucus and Bayonne are the most Pub.

[Torie]

Here is Hudson County, NJ. Hoboken in 2020 was a close runner up second most Dem City in the county after JC. The swings from Trump 2016 to Trump 2016, were big in Hispanic precincts, and solid in the Asian (Indian mostly, both upper middle class and working class - Chinese are thin on the ground - they are not Wall Street finance types like the Indians), while the whites, of all classes from lower middle class on up, except in the very richest precincts (NE Hoboken), that I think did have an Asian influx, and in this case Chinese, not Indian), swung Dem, including my precinct.

https://davesredistricting.org/join/2205dc50-70bb-4912-bcef-915fc5ca67e5

[ProgressiveModerate]

Here is Hudson County, NJ. Hoboken in 2020 was a close runner up second most Dem City in the county after JC. The swings from Trump 2016 to Trump 2016, were big in Hispanic precincts, and solid in the Asian (Indian mostly, both upper middle class and working class - Chinese are thin on the ground - they are not Wall Street finance types like the Indians), while the whites, of all classes from lower middle class on up, except in the very richest precincts (NE Hoboken), that I think did have an Asian influx, and in this case Chinese, not Indian), swung Dem, including my precinct.

https://davesredistricting.org/join/2205dc50-70bb-4912-bcef-915fc5ca67e5

It is interesting to me that the most gentrified parts of both JC and Hoboken swung right in 2020 - albiet narrowly. Feel like there's this notion that gentrification generally means an influx of more left-leaning or progressive professional class folks, and while that seems to be true in places like Madison or Austin, ig not in JC and Hoboken.

[Torie]

Here is Hudson County, NJ. Hoboken in 2020 was a close runner up second most Dem City in the county after JC. The swings from Trump 2016 to Trump 2016, were big in Hispanic precincts, and solid in the Asian (Indian mostly, both upper middle class and working class - Chinese are thin on the ground - they are not Wall Street finance types like the Indians), while the whites, of all classes from lower middle class on up, except in the very richest precincts (NE Hoboken), that I think did have an Asian influx, and in this case Chinese, not Indian), swung Dem, including my precinct.

https://davesredistricting.org/join/2205dc50-70bb-4912-bcef-915fc5ca67e5

It is interesting to me that the most gentrified parts of both JC and Hoboken swung right in 2020 - albiet narrowly. Feel like there's this notion that gentrification generally means an influx of more left-leaning or progressive professional class folks, and while that seems to be true in places like Madison or Austin, ig not in JC and Hoboken.

Gentrified and gentrification are two different things, and you need to correct for race. The biggest swing from Trump 2016 to Trump 2020 was in the precincts that are most heavily influenced from the "projects" buildings next to the Palisades in SW Hoboken, and the next I think with the Chinese Asian influx are in the hyper expensive newer, or repurposed buildings, like the Tea Building Building in NE Hoboken with just fabulous views of Manhattan.

The biggest swings to Biden were in the unbelievably gorgeous (but inside gutted and uber stylish), historic brick and brownstone townhouses in the historic rectangle in Hoboken that are mostly white that are worth a million plus, often multi millions.

[Minnesota Mike]

Ramsey County is slightly bluer than Hennepin County.

Wyandotte County, KS is bluer than Jackson County, MO.

In no way is Ramsey (St Paul) a suburban county.

[ReaganLimbaugh]

I think all of the counties mentioned so far are either not really suburbs or an effect of asymmetric geography (although I suspect Fulton may still be slightly less Democratic than DeKalb if it did not include the northern ex Milton County blob, I need to check). South Florida should work though.

Clayton County, GA is bluer than adjacent Fulton County