College counties that vote more Republican than their states

[Roll Roons]

Brazos, TX (Texas A&M)
Broome, NY (SUNY Binghamton)
Erie, NY (SUNY Buffalo)
Merced, CA (UC Merced)
New Haven, CT (Yale)
Orange, CA (UC Irvine)
Penobscot, ME (UMaine)
Riverside, CA (UC Riverside)
San Diego, CA (UCSD)
Suffolk, NY (Stony Brook)
Tolland, CT (UConn)
Washington, RI (URI)

One thing that struck me is almost all of these are in California or the Northeast, although the two largest/most prestigious UC campuses (UCLA and Berkeley) are in counties that are more Democratic than California as a whole. Also Yale is the only Ivy whose county is more Republican than its state.

Any that I'm missing?

[Smash255]

Brazos, TX (Texas A&M)
Broome, NY (SUNY Binghamton)
Erie, NY (SUNY Buffalo)
Merced, CA (UC Merced)
New Haven, CT (Yale)
Orange, CA (UC Irvine)
Penobscot, ME (UMaine)
Riverside, CA (UC Riverside)
San Diego, CA (UCSD)
Suffolk, NY (Stony Brook)
Tolland, CT (UConn)
Washington, RI (URI)

One thing that struck me is almost all of these are in California or the Northeast, although the two largest/most prestigious UC campuses (UCLA and Berkeley) are in counties that are more Democratic than California as a whole. Also Yale is the only Ivy whose county is more Republican than its state.

Any that I'm missing?

What exactly are you using to determine if some place is a college county?   That is has a decently sized college in it, regardless of how much that college makes up of the overall county?

I graduated from Stony Brook, no one would really consider Suffolk to be a college county.   Its a mostly suburban county of 1.5 million, that happens to have a fairly large college in it.

[Alcibiades]

With the exception of Brazos, TX,* none of these is really a 'college county' in the sense that that term is often used to imply that the college or its town could be said to dominate the county.

_{*Unsurprisingly, given Texas A&M's arch-conservative reputation. Though things have certainly changed recently, and I believe that these days College Station itself actually votes slightly to the left of Texas as a whole.}

[RI]

Whitman, WA (WSU)
Walla Walla, WA (Whitman + Walla Walla University)
Madison, ID (BYU Idaho)
Utah, UT (BYU + Utah Valley University)
Cache, UT (Utah State)
Lynchburg, VA (Liberty University)
Buena Vista, VA (SVU)
McLennan, TX (Baylor)
Hillsdale, MI (Hillsdale College)
Jefferson, OH (Franciscan University)

[Tekken_Guy]

Montgomery County VA.

[mileslunn]

Whitman, WA (WSU)
Walla Walla, WA (Whitman + Walla Walla University)
Madison, ID (BYU Idaho)
Utah, UT (BYU + Utah Valley University)
Cache, UT (Utah State)
Lynchburg, VA (Liberty University)
Buena Vista, VA (SVU)
McLennan, TX (Baylor)
Hillsdale, MI (Hillsdale College)
Jefferson, OH (Franciscan University)

Some of those are small community colleges likely have little impact.  Whitman County, Washington I know is influenced by college so although votes more GOP than state as whole, it is by far the bluest county east of the Cascades.  Likewise Pullman itself saw Biden get over 70% and Trump under 25% and only closer as the rural parts unconnected with college went heavily Republican like rest of Eastern Washington.

That being said seems in solid blue state easier to vote more GOP than state while in red states college counties stand out more.  But many that vote more GOP are counties that happen to have a college but its not an important part of the county or if an important part county is mixed urban/rural and the urban parts where college is located vote more Democrat than state as whole, but GOP dominates the rural parts to push county to right.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Brazos, TX (Texas A&M)
Broome, NY (SUNY Binghamton)
Erie, NY (SUNY Buffalo)
Merced, CA (UC Merced)
New Haven, CT (Yale)
Orange, CA (UC Irvine)
Penobscot, ME (UMaine)
Riverside, CA (UC Riverside)
San Diego, CA (UCSD)
Suffolk, NY (Stony Brook)
Tolland, CT (UConn)
Washington, RI (URI)

One thing that struck me is almost all of these are in California or the Northeast, although the two largest/most prestigious UC campuses (UCLA and Berkeley) are in counties that are more Democratic than California as a whole. Also Yale is the only Ivy whose county is more Republican than its state.

Any that I'm missing?

What exactly are you using to determine if some place is a college county?   That is has a decently sized college in it, regardless of how much that college makes up of the overall county?

I graduated from Stony Brook, no one would really consider Suffolk to be a college county.   Its a mostly suburban county of 1.5 million, that happens to have a fairly large college in it.

Yea if we just go by “has college” then there’s a bunch of random counties that fit this description

[King of Kensington]

It's going to be a long list.  Need some metric beyond "has a college."

[DrScholl]

I think to define a county a college county the college or university there needs to dominate the vote, for example somewhere like Athens County, Ohio and to an extent Champaign County, Illinois.

[Skill and Chance]

It's going to be a long list.  Need some metric beyond "has a college."

Households with either a college student or a college employee are a majority of the county's population?  If this is unreasonable, >25%?

[Unelectable Bystander]

Every major town with a college in Illinois outside of Chicago and Champaign. Especially places like McLean, Dekalb, Sangamon, and wherever Carbondale is.

There are several examples in Wisconsin of UW schools in red counties.

Based on the examples so far, there are interestingly few examples of red state college towns in this category, implying a positive correlation between state lean and college county lean but a negative correlation between state lean and college town lean relative to the state.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Lee, Alabama (Auburn) is very close and can sometimes vote to the right of Alabama.

While it's debatable if you'd call it a college county, I'd also say Pickens, SC (Clemson).

[Roll Roons]

Also one that I thought of: DC is obviously too small to have counties, but I would think Georgetown is at least slightly more Republican than the city as a whole.

[JGibson]

Every major town with a college in Illinois outside of Chicago and Champaign. Especially places like McLean, Dekalb, Sangamon, and wherever Carbondale is.

There are several examples in Wisconsin of UW schools in red counties.

Based on the examples so far, there are interestingly few examples of red state college towns in this category, implying a positive correlation between state lean and college county lean but a negative correlation between state lean and college town lean relative to the state.

Carbondale is in Jackson County, on US 51 and IL 13, west of Marion,

Edwardsville (SIUE) in Madison County could be a college town to some extent, but it has a combo of college town and sprawling suburb (akin to Shiloh and O'Fallon).

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Lee, Alabama (Auburn) is very close and can sometimes vote to the right of Alabama.

While it's debatable if you'd call it a college county, I'd also say Pickens, SC (Clemson).

Clemson is weird cause it sits on the border of three counties (Pickens, Anderson, Oconee). I’ve known people who go there and have lived in two or three of the counties while in school there, so the influence of the university is diluted.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

What about Montgomery, VA (Virginia Tech combined with Radford)?

Also, Centre, PA (Penn State) votes very close to the state as a whole.

[cg41386]

What about Montgomery, VA (Virginia Tech combined with Radford)?

Also, Centre, PA (Penn State) votes very close to the state as a whole.

Radford is technically an independent city.

[GeorgiaModerate]

A simple metric to determine "college counties" would be size of the college's enrollment compared to the county's population.  For example, Clarke County GA is clearly a college county.  UGA's enrollment is about 37K, while the county's population was 128K in the last census, so that's a ratio of just under 30%.  Pick some percentage to be the threshold.

EDIT: In contrast, Kennesaw State has nearly as large an enrollment (35,600), but Cobb County (pop. 766K) clearly is not a college county.

[Samof94]

How does McLennan County fit in??

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

Brazos, TX (Texas A&M)
Broome, NY (SUNY Binghamton)
Erie, NY (SUNY Buffalo)
Merced, CA (UC Merced)
New Haven, CT (Yale)
Orange, CA (UC Irvine)
Penobscot, ME (UMaine)
Riverside, CA (UC Riverside)
San Diego, CA (UCSD)
Suffolk, NY (Stony Brook)
Tolland, CT (UConn)
Washington, RI (URI)

One thing that struck me is almost all of these are in California or the Northeast, although the two largest/most prestigious UC campuses (UCLA and Berkeley) are in counties that are more Democratic than California as a whole. Also Yale is the only Ivy whose county is more Republican than its state.

Any that I'm missing?

The New England ones on your list are all cases of the college not dominating the county. The towns/cities they are in - New Haven and Mansfield CT; Orono ME; South Kingstown RI - all vote to the left of their respective states.