Racing For 2012 | Daily Yonder

02/06/2012 at 9:53am

Daily Yonder The Republican primary vote in Nevada's rural (non-metropolitan) counties.

The urban press was convinced that rural Nevada was Rep. Ron Paul country.

"Paul Counting on Rural Nevadans" read the headline in Politico. "Ron Paul's Last Stand" was in rural Nevada, wrote Molly Ball in The Atlantic.

Ball explained the phenomenon by talking with Beth Rupp in Pahrump, Nevada, about why "rural Nevadans gravitate toward Paul."

""We're all liberty-loving people," Rupp told The Atlantic writer. "We came to Pahrump because there's less government in our lives here. We want our freedom. We want our space."

So how'd that rural vote work out for Rep. Paul in the Nevada primary Saturday? Check out the chart above and you'll see that the rural Nevada stories were largely hype.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the state Saturday with half the vote. He won 43.1 percent of the rural vote. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came in second with 21.1% of the vote, winning 23.6 percent of the rural vote.

And Ron Paul. He notched a third both statewide and in rural Nevada. The Texan won 19.4 percent of the rural vote, only slightly better than his 18.7 percent statewide tally.

Romney continues to underperform in rural counties. His rural take in all the primaries has fallen below his stateside and urban percentages. But the differences aren't great.

And there is no clear rural alternatives. All of Romney's opponents appear to pick up a few percentage points in rural areas, Paul no more than either Gingirch or former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.

Next stop, the Colorado primary Tuesday. See Wednesday's Daily Yonder for the breakdown of the vote.

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02/01/2012 at 11:22am

Romney Wins Cities, Rural and Florida

Mitt Romney won the urban and the rural vote, but he lost in Florida's exurbs. The former Massachusetts governor continues to do best in the cities.

By Bill Bishop

Mitt Romney's last rally of the Florida primary took place in Sumter County, Florida, a rural community. It's the home of The Villages, a large retirement community. In Sumter County, 55 percent of the population receives some kind of Social Security benefit. It was Romney's third best county in the Florida Republican presidential primary. He won 56.8 percent of the vote in Sumter County.

More than 9 out of 10 Republican voters in Florida live in urban areas. Mitt Romney did best in the cities in yesterday's primary and so he easily won the Republican presidential contest Tuesday.

Romney won 46.4 percent of the Republican primary vote, besting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was supported by 31.9% of voters. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum won 13.3 percent of the vote.

The margins in rural, urban and exurban counties varied among the candidates, however. (See the charts on the next page.) The former Massachusetts governor won 47.1 percent of the urban vote in Florida compared to Gringrich's 31.3% take in the cities.

In rural counties, Romney won 40.5 percent; Gingrich won 38.1%.

Romney's winning margin was 15.8 percentage points over Gingrich in urban counties. In rural counties, however, Romney's lead shrank to 2.4 points.

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01/23/2012 at 9:17pm

Rural, Native Americans Now On White House Schedule

The White House has added "rural issues" and "Native American issues" to a list of nearly a score of items administration officials will talk about (via Twitter) in the days after the President's State of the Union Address. Earlier Monday, these were not part of the White House schedule.

Kimberly Teehee, the White House Senior Policy Adviser for Native American Affairs, will take questions about Indian Country on Thursday afternoon, as White House officials hold "office hours" in the days after the President's State of the Union Address.

Alrighty then, rural is on the White House schedule. Ditto Native Americans.

Let us explain.

In the story just below this one, we noted that the White House had ignored rural Americans in a list of issues it planned to discuss during Twitter "office hours" in the days after the State of the Union address.

Just a few moments ago, we received an email from Doug McKalip in the White House. He tells us that there will be an "office hours" session devoted to "Rural Issues" on Friday. Earlier today, there was nothing going on at 10 a.m. (Eastern). Now, "Rural Issues" has been added in that slot. Doug McKalip, Senior Policy Advisor for Rural Affairs, will be taking your questions.

The White House says you should ask your question by using the hashtag #WHchat and then follow the Q&A through the@WHLive Twitter account. (Go here for details on how this thing is going to work and click on Thursday and Friday for the full schedule.)

Nothing else changed on the Friday schedule.

On the Thursday schedule, the White House website now shows a Q&A for "Native American Issues." There was no Native American session shown earlier today.

Kimberly Teehee, Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs, will be taking your Twitter questions and comments. Ms. Teehee will be on line at 3 p.m. (Eastern) Thursday.

So, there you go. Below is the nice email we received from Mr. McKalip at the White House.

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01/23/2012 at 2:56pm

White House Office Hours Miss Rural

The White House will have all sorts of people holding "office hours" later this week, there to talk about "the issues that matter to you and your community." There's no mention of rural.

By Bill Bishop

President Obama's State of the Union Address will be Tuesday evening. We'll be watching.

We were curious, however, about the administration's plans for an entire State of the Union week. After the speech, there will be a live panel of "senior advisors" who will answer questions via Twitter, Facebook and Google+ (and carrier pigeon, as far as we can tell).

"Then," the White House tells us, " on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, a group of policy experts and advisors to the President will sit down for Office Hours on Twitter -- discussing the issues that matter to you and your community."

Great — as long as "you and your community" aren't rural.

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01/22/2012 at 12:11pm

Gingrich Wins S. C. Rural, Cities, and Exurbs

Some news reports say Newt Gingrich carried South Carolina by winning big in rural counties. In fact, the former House Speaker won by about the same margin in rural, urban and exurban counties. He did best in exurban South Carolina.

By Bill Bishop

Daily Yonder We show the percentage of the vote won by each major candidate in rural counties. Above each bar is the percentage that candidate won statewide in Saturday's primary.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won an across-the-board victory Saturday in the Republican presidential primary, taking rural, urban and exurban counties by almost the same margin. Statewide, Gingrich won 40.4% of the vote.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney trailed Gingrich across the state, pulling 27.8% in the third Republican primary state.

(See the charts with this story, which show how each candidate fared in rural, urban and exurban counties. The charts include the candidates’ statewide percentages for comparison.)

Three out of ten South Carolina voters live in exurban counties — communities where at least half the residents live in rural settings but mostly work in nearby large cities. These counties are dotted outside Columbia, Charleston and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Gingrich did best in these exurban counties, where he won 43.1% of the vote. He did nearly as well in rural counties, where he won 42.9% of the vote.

Romney did his worst in exurban counties, where he won only 24.2% of the vote.

Just two out of ten voters in the South Carolina Republican primary came from rural counties. Gingrich won 42.9% of rural voters. Romney won 28.9%.

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01/17/2012 at 8:10am

Poll Finds Rural Voters Favor GOP Choices

A CNN/ORC survey taken last week finds that Barack Obama leads his challengers for the presidency, though rural voters prefer the Republican candidates.

By Julie Ardery and Bill Bishop

rural voters polled Daily Yonder Four Republican candidates were all chosen by rural voters over Obama in a new national poll.

Among rural voters, President Obama is trailing the four top Republican contenders for the GOP nomination, according to a new poll by CNN/ORC.

The poll, released January 16, found that rural voters favored former Massachusettes governor Mitt Romney nearly 2 to 1 over the president. Texas Congressman Ron Paul also had a wide margin or popularity over Barack Obama among rural voters: 61% to the president’s 35%.

The poll, conducted with 1021 American adults January 11-12, asked respondents whom they’d vote for in matchups of the president versus Romney, Paul, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. (Voters were not polled about their preferences in a race between President Obama and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.)

Nationwide, Obama was favored in each of the four hypothetical contests, but differences among rural and urban voters were striking.

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01/11/2012 at 10:20am

Urban Votes Lead Romney N.H. Win

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won all across New Hampshire Tuesday, but he did particularly well in urban counties. Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman did better in rural counties than in urban ones.

By Bill Bishop

Daily Yonder

Mitt Romney won New Hampshire across the board, taking the lead in urban, rural and exurban counties. But the former Massachusetts governor’s primary victory Tuesday had a decidedly urban flavor.

Romney won 43.5 percent of the urban vote in New Hampshire, but only 39.4 percent of the vote overall.

Romney won 33.7 percent of the vote in New Hampshire’s rural counties.

Both Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman did well in New Hampshire’s rural counties. Paul won 24.7 percent of the vote in rural counties, while winning 22.8 percent of the vote overall.

Huntsman won 19.1 percent of the rural vote. He won 16.8 percent of the vote overall. Huntsman did better in rural New Hampshire than in either urban or exurban counties.

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