Bush country counties, 2000

These are counties in which George W. Bush received a higher vote share than Reagan in 1984 or any subsequent nominee, as well as in which Bush's vote share was above 60% (or 3/5), in 2000. (Only counties that cast at least 10,000 votes in 2000 are counted.) This is a somewhat more robust version of what Phillip Reese termed 'Trump country counties' in November 2016--counties where Trump '[beat] [Hillary] Clinton by at least 10 percentage points and earn[ed] a higher share of votes than Mitt Romney did in 2012.'

The last election in which a nominee of either party had received a higher vote share than Bush in '00 is in parentheses.

ALABAMA
Blount (1972)
Cullman (1972)
DeKalb (1972)
Marshall (1976)

CALIFORNIA
Lassen (1940)
Madera (1964)
Plumas (1964)
Shasta (1964)
Siskiyou (1964)
Tehama (1952)

GEORGIA
Bartow (1980)
Camden (1980)
Effingham (1972)
Forsyth (1972)
Glynn (1972)
Hall (1976)
Jackson (1976)
Walton (1976)

IDAHO
Bonner (1932)
Nez Perce (1964)

INDIANA
Adams (back to 1888)
Dearborn (back to 1888)
Dubois (1964)

IOWA
Sioux (back to 1896)

KENTUCKY
Barren (1964)
Shelby (1972)

LOUISIANA
Beauregard (1972)
Livingston (1972)

MISSISSIPPI
Madison (1964)
Rankin (1972)

MISSOURI
Stoddard (1972)

MONTANA
Flathead (1928)

NEVADA
Elko (1896)

NORTH CAROLINA
Beaufort (1972)
Rutherford (1972)
Stanly (1972)
Stokes (back to 1880)
Surry (1972)
Yadkin (1972)

OKLAHOMA
McCurtain (1976)

OREGON
Douglas (1928)
Union (1964)

PENNSYLVANIA
Butler (1972)
Mifflin (1972)
Somerset (1972)

SOUTH DAKOTA
Lincoln (1960)

TEXAS
Anderson (1972)
Angelina (1972)
Brown (1948)
Burnet (1972)
Cherokee (1972)
Cooke (1972)
Ellis (1964)
Erath (1972)
Hardin (1964)
Henderson (1972)
Hill (1976)
Hood (1964)
Hopkins (1976)
Jasper (1976)
Johnson (1972)
Kaufman (1964)
Lamar (1976)
Medina (1972)
Montgomery (1972)
Navarro (1976)
Parker (1948)
Polk (1976)
Upshur (1972)
Van Zandt (1972)
Washington (1972)
Wharton (1972)
Wichita (1972)
Wise (1972)

WASHINGTON
Franklin (1964)
Grant (1940)
Okanogan (1936)

WEST VIRGINIA
Preston (1972)

WISCONSIN
Washington (1956)

WYOMING
Sheridan (1972)

--

States containing at least one such county

Incidentally, it is known that Bush set the all-time record vote share in at least one county in 2000--Lincoln County, Montana, where he got 71.1%, better than any nominee since the county's founding in 1909. However, Lincoln County cast only 7,846 votes in 2000; it first cast over 10,000 votes in 2020 (when Trump set a new all-time record of 73.8%).

Not many of these were turnover counties (that is, counties that had voted for Bill Clinton in 1996), which is to be expected. Some, however, were: Nez Perce, ID, McCurtain, OK, and Hopkins, Jasper, and Navarro, TX. Of those five, four had also voted for Dukakis (and for Clinton in 1992)--all save Hopkins, TX. McCurtain, OK and Jasper and Navarro, TX were Bush breakthrough counties (having voted for Carter twice in addition to voting for Dukakis and Clinton twice). Polk and Hardin, TX were what could be called Dole breakthrough counties--they had voted for Carter twice, for Dukakis, and for Clinton in '92, before switching to Dole in '96.

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