Middle Tennessee mystery

[wdewey]

Why do a handful of rural counties in Middle Tennessee vote Democratic so consistently? Voting for Carter and Clinton and Gore is to be expected, but McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry? Obama predictably lost most of those holdouts (his vote plummeted in middle TN compared to Kerry), but he still won Houston and Jackson Counties.

Most rural Democratic counties in the South are heavily African-American, but these counties are almost entirely white. Houston County voted for Wallace in 68 and McGovern in 72--about the strangest pivot possible. Are these places really bastions of liberalism, or just old-fashioned yellow-dog Democrats who somehow didn't get the message to switch parties like the rest of the South?

[wdewey]

economic lefties probably old mining areas.

Coal country is in East Tennessee, which votes overwhelmingly Republican. (The unions never got a foothold like they did in WV or KY). I suppose it could be some other kind of mining but there's mining all over the state.

[wdewey]

ran across an interesting tidbit about jackson county Alpert gore Sr was born there. i still havent found any reasons on why the area is democratic.

That might help to explain it. Jackson County voted for Humphrey in 68, so their subsequent voting behavior is a bit more logical (though still very unusual for the region)