Can Dutchess County ever be turned Blue?

[bluestateguy]

I have been pouring over some old election data going back to 1836, and I noticed that Dutchess County, FDR's home county, has only voted Democratic for President twice since 1872 (1964 and 1996). Astonishingly, it never voted for its favorite son, FDR. In the 2 1/2 candidate election of 1996 Clinton took a 45.6% plurality in Dutchess, while Al Gore lost the county in 2000, but won 46.9%, with 5% for Nader. In 2004 John Kerry won 47.0% of the vote in Dutchess County.

This is the home county of Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Vassar College, Bard College and Marist College. I would have thought that that those places would lean the county to the left. but there seems to be a stubborn Republican tradition over there that is not going away quietly.

Still, I like the direction things are moving in, and I think maybe Ducthess could join the Blue Nation sometime in the next 4-8 years.

[BamaLefty]

1. Poughkeepsie

Home of Bill "O' Baby Talk To Me" Reily. :eyes:

[iwantmycountryback]

2. I live in Beacon

And there's a very high number of people moving into here. We are expanding a lot. There is a very high minority population here, as well as in Newburgh and Poughkeepsie which would lead me to believe they are Democratic towns. However the rest of the county might not be like this.

[OneBlueSky]

3. Pete Seeger has lived in Beacon for years . . .

and has always been very conscious that he's in a pretty conservative community . . . hope that's really changing with the influx of new people . . .

[mdmc]

4. his grandson was a delegate for Kucinich NYSCD 19

Pete and Toshi still live in the area. They were recently awarded the NAACP people of the year award...

[Lavender Brown]

5. In 2000,

most of the students were registered to vote in their home states, not in New York, though a lot changed their registrations to vote for Hillary in 2000. I don't know about the other schools but most Vassar students were from out of state when I was there.

[DemGirl7]

6. Well as a Poughkeepsie resident...

I think that right now the most Democrat part of the County is the city of Poughkeepsie, because I really don't think that most the residents here would actually vote for a Republican President.