Vermont and Western Massachusetts

[mileslunn]

Both are quite rural and white, yet vote Democrat on levels you see in large urban centers, minority-majority areas, and college towns (yes I know have a few but not enough to dominate) so what is reason for this?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

New England has a large genuinely socially liberal population which isn’t as pronounced in most other predominantly white areas.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Cultural reasons.

But also don’t underestimate the college towns; they can have decently large spheres of political influence which can be the different between an County being R+30 or D+30.

[Oryxslayer]

Some people like to retire in nature and snow, rather than in the heat and flaunting retirement money with boats and golf clubs. Beyond the fact that said population self-selects more Dem than the nation, it's pulling from the already (secular) Dem northeast.

[King of Kensington]

Few evangelicals and more secular.  New England's religious profile is more similar to Canada than that of the rest of the U.S. in many ways.

[mileslunn]

Few evangelicals and more secular.  New England's religious profile is more similar to Canada than that of the rest of the U.S. in many ways.

And even on ethnic make up too as large English, Scottish, and French ancestry while much smaller German than most of US.  But true most are Catholic or mainline Protestant which GOP at least amongst whites tends to win, but not by lopsided margins like they do with Evangelicals.  And off course if you include no religion, Democrats win that cohort even amongst whites. 

Still even in Canada, Conservatives generally do better than GOP does in Western Massachusetts and Vermont.  Maybe in Atlantic Canada depending on election but also can get as high as 40s and in some ridings in 50s in rural areas there as votes more elastic in Canada than US.  After all GOP gets in low 30s in Vermont, mid to high 20s in Western Massachusetts which Conservatives sometimes get in Atlantic Canada, but that is on low side not average.  Neither has a city as large as Halifax which would pull Nova Scotia numbers down and as more akin to Nova Scotia outside Halifax where Tories pretty consistently save 2015 disaster get above 35%.

In rural Ontario and rural West, Tories get much higher vote share than GOP does in those two.  Only in urban areas do they do that badly.  Quebec is off course a different ballgame.

[King of Kensington]

Educational attainment is of course the other factor.  Even many of the rural areas in New England are highly educated and very culturally liberal.

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

The answers in this thread are correct but incomplete. Chalking it up to New England being secular and liberal doesn't describe it all. After all, other rural parts of New England - eastern Connecticut, central Massachusetts, western Rhode Island, and large parts of New Hampshire and Maine - have a Republican lean (although still not as red as rural areas in other parts of the country).

What makes rural Vermont and western Massachusetts so culturally liberal, even compared to other rural parts of New England? Here's a few factors:

1. These areas saw a large influx of population from people who lived in the New York metropolitan area in the latter half of the 20th century (as part of the hippie/countercultural movement). Bernie Sanders is a good example of this. These people were drawn to the natural beauty of New England and these parts of New England were closer to New York. This part of New England was also very unpopulated compared to more industrial or agricultural areas to the east. It was lightly populated by traditional New England WASP Yankee stock that leaned very Republican. It didn't take a lot of in-migration to this region for the Yankee vote to get drowned out.

2. Similar to above, the Green Mountains/Berkshire region draw a significant number of "artsy" people and retirees who are liberal and highly educated, compared to other rural parts of New England which either have a more working class background or are not in the pretty mountains and thus never drew this type of crowd. The few anomalies in this region - towns like Chester, MA for example - are working class towns that have realigned to Republicans. If there's no former industry, it's a blue town. It's also why some other towns more on the gritty side like North Adams MA, Rutland VT, or North Canaan CT aren't as blue. Once you head further east, the prettiest mountains are gone and even the non-industrial rural areas have a more traditional conservative lean due to not having artists/retirees/crunchy Subaru drivers.

3. In addition to hippies, there are also a larger number of liberal arts colleges in this part of rural New England. There are also some more "elitist" areas (think places like Lenox and Stockbridge, MA or Salisbury/Sharon/Kent in rural northwestern CT) which aren't as progressive but are definitely part of the liberal MSNBC establishment. These towns prefer Hillary types but are still just as blue.


4. At this point, it's just a positive feedback loop. People who are raised in this area are raised in probably the most secular culture anywhere in America, and most take those liberal views with them into adulthood. This has continued for a few generations now and it also has the effect of attracting more likeminded liberals.

So really it is explained in part by the region's lack of major industry/agriculture and role as a vacationland that in turn attracted elites, college students, artists, and hippies, that in turn led to more in-migration from likeminded people, that in turn has led to new generations being raised in this way. But this unusually liberal white rural area is unique even in New England itself, with other rural areas just a bit further east not having these same factors and ending up being much more Republican.

[ottermax]

An interesting foil to this region is urban Miami-Dade which is extremely conservative for an urban, non-white area.

I bring this up because I think to a certain extent political identities both are formed by the culture of the members of the political party and vice versa.

For being a relatively insignificant area population wise Vermont and Western MA have an outsize influence on American liberal politics from the abolitionist era to the current Sanders progressivism. Other areas that have such an influence on this strain of politics are more predictable (NYC, DC, Chicago, LA, SF), but then you have this region that punches far above its weight in terms of influencing the issues.

On the flip side a place like Miami exemplifies the power of a large group influencing a party - the emphasis on Cuba, Venezuela, and anti-socialism in the GOP is particularly a focus because these groups are influenced by this issue, but these groups also insist on keeping the topic to the forefront of the GOP platform.

[RussFeingoldWasRobbed]

#SECULAR

[HAnnA MArin County]

While we're on the topic of Western Massachusetts, can anyone shed some light into Wendell, MA? Per Wikipedia, this town gave Jill Stein her largest percentage of the vote statewide in 2012 and 2016 and it was the only town in Massachusetts to give Bernie Sanders a majority of its vote in the 2020 primaries. This is sort of similar to Arcata in Humboldt County, California, but whereas Arcata has a college, Wendell doesn't, so I'm just curious as to why it's as liberal as it is.

Here's a look at the Green Party presidential nominees' share of the vote in Wendell:
2000: Nader 36.24% (Gore 45.85% - Bush 16.59%)
2004: Cobb 3.95% (Kerry 80.64% - Bush 12.97%)
2008: McKinney 1.23% (Obama 83.60% - McCain 12.17%)
2012: Stein 3.05% (Obama 76.66% - Romney 12.57%)
2016: Stein 8.22% (Clinton 68.84% - Trump 17.81%)
2020: Hawkins 1.47% (Biden 79.32% - Trump 17.10%)

An intriguing little place.

[RI]

While we're on the topic of Western Massachusetts, can anyone shed some light into Wendell, MA? Per Wikipedia, this town gave Jill Stein her largest percentage of the vote statewide in 2012 and 2016 and it was the only town in Massachusetts to give Bernie Sanders a majority of its vote in the 2020 primaries. This is sort of similar to Arcata in Humboldt County, California, but whereas Arcata has a college, Wendell doesn't, so I'm just curious as to why it's as liberal as it is.

Here's a look at the Green Party presidential nominees' share of the vote in Wendell:
2000: Nader 36.24% (Gore 45.85% - Bush 16.59%)
2004: Cobb 3.95% (Kerry 80.64% - Bush 12.97%)
2008: McKinney 1.23% (Obama 83.60% - McCain 12.17%)
2012: Stein 3.05% (Obama 76.66% - Romney 12.57%)
2016: Stein 8.22% (Clinton 68.84% - Trump 17.81%)
2020: Hawkins 1.47% (Biden 79.32% - Trump 17.10%)

An intriguing little place.

Not sure if this explains it beyond the general granola Birkenstock Belt vibe of the area, but there is a small academy for Chinese exchange students in Wendell. You just drive through the forest, and suddenly there's a PRC flag flying. There's not a whole lot else in the town of note other than a random large patch of solar panels in the middle of the forest.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

An interesting foil to this region is urban Miami-Dade which is extremely conservative for an urban, non-white area.

The majority of Miami/Florida Cubans are White. Same thing with many other Latinos in South Florida.

[TML]

An interesting foil to this region is urban Miami-Dade which is extremely conservative for an urban, non-white area.

The majority of Miami/Florida Cubans are White. Same thing with many other Latinos in South Florida.

Additionally, the share of people with higher education in these areas is relatively low (for example, in Hialeah, a Cuban-majority city that routinely gives Republicans landslide margins in elections, less than 20% of the population has a college degree).

[AustralianSwingVoter]

While we're on the topic of Western Massachusetts, can anyone shed some light into Wendell, MA? Per Wikipedia, this town gave Jill Stein her largest percentage of the vote statewide in 2012 and 2016 and it was the only town in Massachusetts to give Bernie Sanders a majority of its vote in the 2020 primaries. This is sort of similar to Arcata in Humboldt County, California, but whereas Arcata has a college, Wendell doesn't, so I'm just curious as to why it's as liberal as it is.

Here's a look at the Green Party presidential nominees' share of the vote in Wendell:
2000: Nader 36.24% (Gore 45.85% - Bush 16.59%)
2004: Cobb 3.95% (Kerry 80.64% - Bush 12.97%)
2008: McKinney 1.23% (Obama 83.60% - McCain 12.17%)
2012: Stein 3.05% (Obama 76.66% - Romney 12.57%)
2016: Stein 8.22% (Clinton 68.84% - Trump 17.81%)
2020: Hawkins 1.47% (Biden 79.32% - Trump 17.10%)

An intriguing little place.

Not sure if this explains it beyond the general granola Birkenstock Belt vibe of the area, but there is a small academy for Chinese exchange students in Wendell. You just drive through the forest, and suddenly there's a PRC flag flying. There's not a whole lot else in the town of note other than a random large patch of solar panels in the middle of the forest.

Their municipal flap sums up the vibe rather well.

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

While we're on the topic of Western Massachusetts, can anyone shed some light into Wendell, MA? Per Wikipedia, this town gave Jill Stein her largest percentage of the vote statewide in 2012 and 2016 and it was the only town in Massachusetts to give Bernie Sanders a majority of its vote in the 2020 primaries. This is sort of similar to Arcata in Humboldt County, California, but whereas Arcata has a college, Wendell doesn't, so I'm just curious as to why it's as liberal as it is.

Here's a look at the Green Party presidential nominees' share of the vote in Wendell:
2000: Nader 36.24% (Gore 45.85% - Bush 16.59%)
2004: Cobb 3.95% (Kerry 80.64% - Bush 12.97%)
2008: McKinney 1.23% (Obama 83.60% - McCain 12.17%)
2012: Stein 3.05% (Obama 76.66% - Romney 12.57%)
2016: Stein 8.22% (Clinton 68.84% - Trump 17.81%)
2020: Hawkins 1.47% (Biden 79.32% - Trump 17.10%)

An intriguing little place.

I drove through Wendell once. There's no college in town itself, but it's near Amherst (which has several colleges) and may have a number of professors living there. See also: Leverett, Shutesbury, and Pelham, which are also rural and just as blue.

But Wendell is definitely more green than those other three, and I don't really know why. The population is too small to really be able to tell. Perhaps it sort of just gained a reputation of being that way.