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Hear a lot of national reporting (looking at you @nytimes @mikiebarb) making sweeping generalizations about rural communities overwhelmingly going for Republicans, and urban communities going blue. You know what the two most girls states in America are? 1/
Maine and Vermont. Maine and Vermont are the two most rural states in the nation, according to 2010 census data. Not your cliched picture of rural America if you don’t live in these places, is it? And look at who voters elected on Tuesday: lots of Democrats. 2/
These are also two states that have shifted from red to blue over the last few generations. As well, these are states that tend to be ticket splitters with other New England states: you might see a Democrat in Congress and the Republican in the governor’s seat. 3/
Believe me, I understand that a lot of new wants is necessarily lost when you were talking about national trends. But I think it’s interesting to interrogate this idea we have about who rural voters are, and hold it up against a more true reflection of the US population. 4/
There are other, perhaps more complicated, demographic issues at play than just an urban/rural divide. And before I get off my soapbox let me just say that local reporting is where you’re going to find the context and deep understanding of what his driving local decisions. 5/5
