N.H. Voters Have Become Less Republican Since 1960s, New Carsey Institute Research Shows

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2011/dec/lw13carsey.cfm

[font size="5"]N.H. Voters Have Become Less Republican Since 1960s, New Carsey Institute Research Shows[/font]
[font size="4"]Changes Have Impacted Presidential Primary[/font]
December 13, 2011

DURHAM, N.H. – New Hampshire voters are about to observe their first-in-the-nation presidential primary. However, someone will be missing from this civic celebration: the Yankee Republican, that rural stalwart of New England conservative values, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

“Once upon a time, the rural counties of New Hampshire were among the most Republican in the country. Nowadays, visiting out-of-state reporters are more likely to find Republican primary voters in the densely populated towns of the Granite State’s southern tier. In the past, old-time New Hampshire Republicans frequently complained about the negative effects of Massachusetts voters moving north. Now, one might argue that Interstate 93 has only bolstered the state’s Grand Old Party,” says Dante Scala, associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow the Carsey Institute.

The key findings of the research show:

• Looking at presidential elections from 1960-2008, New Hampshire voters have become less Republican overall.


• Republican presidential candidates no longer have the advantage they once did in New Hampshire’s “Yankee” rural counties.


• Historically Republican counties Grafton and Merrimack have both tilted Democratic consistently in recent decades.


• Hillsborough and Rockingham counties’ percentage of Republican presidential primary voters across the state has grown from 44 percent in 1976 to 55 percent.

…

[Chemisse]

1. I can believe it.

The population here has steadily increased as people move here from Mass and other, more liberal areas. When I first moved here (1978), Democrats were few and far between. Voting in presidential elections was an exercise in futility, since the state always went Republican.

Boy has that changed! It was exciting for us to be a key swing state in the last election.