Vigo County, Ind., is a famous bellwether county — it was basically a tie in the 2012 election. Now with 75 percent of precincts in, Trump leads the county by 17 points.
Belmont County, Ohio, favored Mitt Romney by 9 points in 2012. It’s favoring Trump by 29 points, with 29 percent of precincts in.
Vigo County has a median household income of $41,000, and Belmont Co. is $43,000. These are both more than 20 percent lower than the national median household income.
Belmont is 94 percent white and Vigo is 88 percent white.
One way of looking at this: In the heartland, Trump is vastly overperforming the GOP norm in rural, white, working-class counties.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
