counties where perot did better in 96 than he did in 92.

[minionofmidas]

montgomery county is the home of virginia tech university.

Ohh, OK.  That does explain it.

But what about Floyd?  Latte liberals or spillover?

I note that Floyd, with Carroll and Grayson on the same mountain, was a hotbed of violent unconditional unionism during the civil war - we're talking "not safe to wear gray in after dark" - , and has been Republican almost ever since.
And checking the election history since 1960, Floyd seems to be where that tradition is strongest.
It was Nixon's second best county in the state that year, btw, just barely pipped by Rockingham.

[minionofmidas]

...and overwhelmingly, too.
Interesting. Might make sense to check these data against county's (white) populations at the time, but that's for another day.

[minionofmidas]

montgomery county is the home of virginia tech university.

Ohh, OK.  That does explain it.

But what about Floyd?  Latte liberals or spillover?

I note that Floyd, with Carroll and Grayson on the same mountain, was a hotbed of violent unconditional unionism during the civil war - we're talking "not safe to wear gray in after dark" - , and has been Republican almost ever since.
And checking the election history since 1960, Floyd seems to be where that tradition is strongest.
It was Nixon's second best county in the state that year, btw, just barely pipped by Rockingham.

that is true.

but it should be noted that all three of those counties voted for secession.

http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/vasecesh.htm

60% turnout in Floyd, based on number of white males over the age of 20.
Random comparisons: Albemarle 74%, Alexandria 40%, Barbour (alphabetically first county where the vote was seriously contested) 79%, Brooke (alphabetically first county to vote nay overwhelmingly) 64%.
What does this show? Nowt. Except possibly that the very low anti-secession vote in Alexandria may be the result of voter suppression or of an error in the data.

[minionofmidas]

In '32, Floyd was the only county in Virginia not to vote for FDR.

obviously they love freedom.

Shame it's just the introduction - the whole thing might well answer the questions...

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-4019122049721391/unrestricted/ETD.PDF

Oh and btw: Checking the county website, wiki page etc, yeah it's pretty obvious that the place has a hippie infestation even though the old Republicans continue to predominate... but probably not in the Dem primary.