The Sixth Great Lake

Alright, I know I said my last post was my "final thoughts" on the election, but this one is more about electoral demographics in general.  Much has been said on the GOP's need to reach out to minority voters if they hope to stay relevant in the face of America's changing demography.  That's certainly true, but I want to take a moment to focus on what I think is an interesting area of the electoral map.  Take a look at this breakdown of the Presidential race by county:

We know that the red Romney areas far surpass the blue Obama areas because Obama voters tend to be more urban than rural, and large swaths of red states are empty land.  If anything this map reveals just how much demographics play a part in electoral politics - you can easily pick out heavily Hispanic areas in the Southwest and the "Black Belt" that runs from Memphis and the Lower Mississippi all the way through Virginia.

For me, however, the most interesting part of the map is the blue lake west of Chicago.  It includes areas of four states - Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.  It contains no major cities, being bounded on its edges by Madison, Minneapolis, and Des Moines.  It is mostly farm country.  It is mostly white.  And it clearly voted for Obama.

What gives?  I've been through that area many times.  It's a nice section of the Upper Midwest, not that exciting and certainly not that different than the areas surrounding it.  What separates it from, say, the Red Sea in between Kansas City and Denver?  Again, both are rural areas, settled mostly by white European stock from various countries.  They're church-going folk of many denominations - Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, you name it.  The crops may vary a little, but farming is the dominant industry.  There are few factories and union workers.  So why the stark difference in voting preferences?

This is just me spitballing - throwing out a few ideas.  I'm not going to dive into thorough research and analysis, though it might be worth it for the Democrats to do so - they may also have something to learn about expanding their traditional base.  First, the Blue Lake is corn country, and corn country is ethanol country.  Obama's been generally supportive of ethanol, and I'm sure he makes that known when he swings through Iowa and Wisconsin.  Second, speaking of Iowa, Obama has paid it a great deal of attention ever since he began running in the 2008 primaries.  That may help to explain Iowans' continued affection, though in the end Obama still had to win their votes.

My last idea goes back to demographics.  I know that quite a few settlers of the Upper Midwest were Yankee emigrants from New England - the only other largely white region that Obama clearly dominated.  Perhaps there is some lasting influence there?  Of course, that doesn't really explain the many counties in Wisconsin, Michigan, and elsewhere that went red.  I'm certainly open to other suggested explanations for the Blue Lake of the Midwest.  Please feel free to leave them in the comments.