Carroll County’s Legacy in Presidential Politics by (c) Joe Getty
October 30, 2008
I am always amazed at how the Baltimore region media wrongly stereotypes Carroll County as some unsophisticated poor “country cousin” that is always doing something to embarrass its big city counterparts.
I am always amazed at how the Baltimore region media wrongly stereotypes Carroll County as some unsophisticated poor “country cousin” that is always doing something to embarrass its big city counterparts.The most frequent media technique to pigeon-hole Carroll County’s citizens is to send a news reporter for a “person on the street” interview. To me, they are talking to a normal, common-sense Carroll Countian with traditional conservative values – but in the Baltimore City media, it always comes off as commentary from some far-out, right-wing zealot.
Recently, the public radio station WYPR sent a reporter to find Obama supporters in Carroll County. The journalist actually did a fairly good job in balancing both sides in comparison with many hatchet jobs done by other media outlets – but you are still left with an underlying insinuation of “Here we are in Carroll County wondering how in the world those people out there could vote for John McCain?”
If the big city media got past its myopia of Carroll as a long-standing Republican bastion in a Maryland sea of blue, they would realize that there is a diversity of political opinion in the county. In fact, through most of the 20th century, the majority of registered voters in Carroll County were Democrat. And traditionally, the elected officials in Carroll County ranged about 50/50 of Democrats to Republicans.
It is a phenomenon of the 1990s that Republicans gained the majority in voter registration and, in 1998, captured all of the state, local and courthouse seats in Carroll. Probably many factors contributed to this very recent Republican dominance.
One of the major factors would be that, despite party labels, county residents have had a long tradition in choosing the more conservative candidate in presidential politics.
As shown by the chart below, over the past 70 years, a Democrat presidential candidate carried Carroll County in only one election. That candidate was Lyndon Johnson who beat Barry Goldwater in the county by the slim margin of 119 votes in 1964.
Moreover, if you go back 90 years of elections, Republican presidential candidates have been victorious in Carroll County in 20 out of 22 contests. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who carried the county in the depression era election of 1932 against Herbert Hoover, failed to carry Carroll County in his three latter campaigns.
We can expect the pendulum to swing back and for local Democrats to be elected to state and local office, perhaps as early as 2010 when the county government switches from three at-large commissioners to five commissioners elected by district.
But the county’s bedrock philosophy of conservative politics, especially as shown in presidential contests, will likely be around for many decades to come.
Recently, the public radio station WYPR sent a reporter to find Obama supporters in Carroll County. The journalist actually did a fairly good job in balancing both sides in comparison with many hatchet jobs done by other media outlets – but you are still left with an underlying insinuation of “Here we are in Carroll County wondering how in the world those people out there could vote for John McCain?”
If the big city media got past its myopia of Carroll as a long-standing Republican bastion in a Maryland sea of blue, they would realize that there is a diversity of political opinion in the county. In fact, through most of the 20th century, the majority of registered voters in Carroll County were Democrat. And traditionally, the elected officials in Carroll County ranged about 50/50 of Democrats to Republicans.
It is a phenomenon of the 1990s that Republicans gained the majority in voter registration and, in 1998, captured all of the state, local and courthouse seats in Carroll. Probably many factors contributed to this very recent Republican dominance.
One of the major factors would be that, despite party labels, county residents have had a long tradition in choosing the more conservative candidate in presidential politics.
As shown by the chart below, over the past 70 years, a Democrat presidential candidate carried Carroll County in only one election. That candidate was Lyndon Johnson who beat Barry Goldwater in the county by the slim margin of 119 votes in 1964.
Moreover, if you go back 90 years of elections, Republican presidential candidates have been victorious in Carroll County in 20 out of 22 contests. Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who carried the county in the depression era election of 1932 against Herbert Hoover, failed to carry Carroll County in his three latter campaigns.
We can expect the pendulum to swing back and for local Democrats to be elected to state and local office, perhaps as early as 2010 when the county government switches from three at-large commissioners to five commissioners elected by district.
But the county’s bedrock philosophy of conservative politics, especially as shown in presidential contests, will likely be around for many decades to come.
Year | Republican | Votes | Democrat | Votes |
2004 | Bush | 55,275 | Kerry | 22.974 |
2000 | Bush | 41,742 | Gore | 20,146 |
1996 | Dole | 30,316 | 17,122 | |
1992 | Bush | 28,405 | 15,447 | |
1988 | Bush | 31,224 | Dukakis | 12,368 |
1984 | Reagan | 27,230 | Mondale | 8,898 |
1980 | Reagan | 19,859 | Carter | 10,393 |
1976 | Ford | 15,661 | Carter | 9,940 |
1972 | Nixon | 16,847 | McGovern | 4,408 |
1968 | Nixon | 11,888 | Humphrey | 4,658 |
1964 | Goldwater | 8,332 | Johnson | 8,451 |
1960 | Nixon | 11,445 | Kennedy | 5,763 |
1956 | Eisenhower | 11,749 | Stevenson | 4,423 |
1952 | Eisenhower | 11,563 | Stevenson | 4,934 |
1948 | Dewey | 8,003 | Truman | 4,226 |
1944 | Dewey | 8,999 | 4,483 | |
1940 | Wilkie | 8,300 | 5,883 | |
1936 | Landon | 7,383 | 6,493 | |
1932 | 5,732 | 6,482 | ||
1928 | 8,644 | Smith | 3,731 | |
1924 | Coolidge | 5,301 | 4,616 | |
1920 | Harding | 5,784 | Cox | 4,273 |
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