Why do the people of New York vote for Democrats, while those in Alabama vote for Republicans?

Question

WhiteSteve · Accepted Answer

There’s not really a simple blanket answer, really. I guess the most simplistic is that New York trends liberal and Alabama trends conservative. But as to why that is, that’s complicated, or at least multi-faceted.

It has to do with the many factors that contribute to the local cultures and attitudes in both places, plus what the politicians are selling to the denizens of those places.

I could write a whole dissertation on this, lmao, but my opinion would be that a place like NY has more economic opportunities, better general quality of life, better education, more focus on said education, better economic conditions to pursue collegiate education, more cultural diversity, I feel like many people are more well-read and well-traveled.

Alabama seems a little more hard up economically, the culture is very different, studies would suggest the education is lower quality and maybe lower priority, it feels like you’re either White or you’re Black in the Deep South (not exclusively, but much more so than elsewhere) so there’s less diversity, and maybe the lower quality education and lower incomes lead to being less well-read and less traveled. And I think a HUGE X-factor is Evangelical Christianity’s strong presence. The anti-abortion cause the church has taken up at the behest of the Republican Party is enough to sway a lot of people right, largely through emotional manipulation tactics.

I don’t say all that to punk anyone, but just to say I feel like there’s a higher chance that you’ve never left the state and that you’ve never been exposed to the type of people conservatives seem to fear to evolve as a person. And if someone is being steered by heavy religious influence, that often leads to very harmful worldviews.

I think college education is very important to have as a voter. College is where you learn true critical thinking, true application of The Scientific Method, and how to basically discern true information from false information. You might cover a little of that growing up, and I’m not trying to be elitist here, but that’s like trusting me to build an addition on your house because I took wood shop in junior high. I don’t want anyone disenfranchised or anything, but I’m saying an uneducated voter makes me a little nervous in terms of ability to be, again, emotionally manipulated by a slick politician.

All this said, I think a lot of New York area-wise votes red, because (all due respect) most places outside the NYC Metro Area are kinda run down, and suffer from a lot of what I said about Alabama and the like. Upstate and Western New York have seen better days. So they’re ripe for the picking. Broke, angry, looking for someone to help, and looking for someone else to blame for their troubles. The politicians sell them hope and psychological soothing. “It’s not your fault, and I’ll make it all better” is the pitch.

But Metro NYC is more populous than a lot of states, so they carry the state. NYC and the surrounding area attracts much more educated and economically well-off people (because you can’t get a warm doorway anywhere near the city for under close to a million, most likely), and those people tend to be more worldly and accepting of new ideas, different people, etc, and that just tends to correlate to being more liberal.

A lot of it just comes down to local cultural influences. I was just down in Tennessee this weekend, coming from Boston, and it was like being on Mars with all the cowboy outfits and such. Interacted with a few locals who were very charming, but of course I had some presumptions on who the White locals I met voted for, haha; so it makes me extrapolate on it and think of all the people I care about who they wouldn’t give a fuck if they were harmed or discriminated against, which is what boils my blood about conservatives in the first place…but I tried to just take them as they came.

I remember hearing a saying once that people from the Northeast are kind, but not nice; and people from the South and Midwest are nice, but not kind. I guess I’d just zoom in and apply that to the states in question here.

I guess that’s all just my opinion, but that’s the take I’d say I have on it. Education —> worldliness—> open-mindedness and organically empathetic worldview —> votes with the best interests of ALL in mind; Substandard/less-focused-on education + intensity of religion —> inexperience and naivety —> rigidity of thought and outside dependency on an institution for moral guidance —> votes based on selfish intentions, possibly hateful beliefs they can’t get validated elsewhere, and looking for a leadership figure and moral authority

msc545 · Accepted Answer

The biggest reason is that New York and Alabama contain very different mixes of people and communities, and over the last several decades the two parties have sorted themselves around those differences. It is less that something about living in New York automatically makes someone Democratic, or Alabama Republican, than that each state contains many of the kinds of voters who currently favor one party.

New York is highly urbanized, especially because of New York City. Across the country, urban voters favor Democrats by a substantial margin; Pew found about 60% of urban voters identify with or lean Democratic versus 37% Republican. Rural voters show almost the mirror image, with Republicans holding a roughly 25-point advantage. Alabama has a much larger rural and small-town population, so that urban–rural divide alone explains a good deal of the contrast.

The states also differ demographically. New York has large Black, Hispanic, Asian, immigrant and college-educated populations. Nationally, Black voters remain strongly Democratic, Hispanic and Asian voters lean Democratic, and voters with bachelor's or postgraduate degrees are now more likely to be Democrats. Alabama has a very large Black Democratic electorate as well, but its White electorate—particularly Whites without four-year college degrees—is overwhelmingly Republican. Nationally, 63% of White voters without bachelor's degrees identify with or lean Republican, according to Pew.

Religion is another major factor. Alabama has a particularly large evangelical Protestant population. White evangelical voters are among the most Republican constituencies in America: Pew puts them at roughly 85% Republican/Republican-leaning versus 14% Democratic. New York has many more religiously unaffiliated voters, Jewish voters and other groups that lean Democratic.

But the really interesting part is history, because Alabama did not always vote Republican. For most of the period from Reconstruction through the mid-20th century, Alabama and much of the South were overwhelmingly Democratic—the famous “Solid South.” During the civil-rights era and the decades following it, the national parties underwent a major realignment. Black voters increasingly became Democrats, while conservative Southern White voters gradually migrated toward the Republican Party. Alabama's shift took decades rather than occurring in a single election.

Meanwhile, New York's enormous cities, union traditions, immigrant communities and later its increasingly college-educated professional population fitted increasingly well into the modern Democratic coalition. The Democratic coalition itself has changed considerably: today it contains a much larger proportion of college graduates than it did even 30 years ago.

So I would boil it down to this:

New York is Democratic largely because it is urban, diverse, highly educated and comparatively secular. Alabama is Republican largely because its White electorate is more rural, culturally conservative, evangelical and less college-educated.

There is one fascinating wrinkle, though: race substantially complicates the Alabama story. Alabama isn't uniformly conservative. Its Black Belt contains some of the most reliably Democratic counties anywhere in the South. If you look at a county-level election map rather than the state as a whole, Alabama suddenly becomes much more interesting.

And historically, the contrast between New York and Alabama is a terrific illustration of how the Democratic and Republican parties essentially reassembled their electoral coalitions during the 20th century. That story is probably even more interesting than the present-day voting pattern.

strateguy632 · Answer

You mean  more  voters? Some new yorkers voted republican. Millions! 3.6 million. Look at the map too. Most of the map. But city folk get indoctrinated at college and became a herd. No good reasoning. Just led by liberal professors with tricky words.  Picture

exitseven · Answer

New Yorkers have a lot of liberls. Even Jewish people voted for Mandami. They will be surprised when Mamadami has them all incarcerated.

canamlusciouslad73 · Answer

New Yorkers are (slightly) smarter than Alabamans !!!

FrodoSkywalker007 · Answer

Well, msc, you've asked this before. Didn't get the answer you wanted?

purplepoppy · Answer

Education levels

Abbycado · Answer

Different demographics, different needs.

slatyb · Answer

The people of New York are smarter.

fishbone77 · Answer

Because people in New York are stupid.

Anonymous · Answer

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