You can be forgiven for thinking there's no serious ethnocultural divide in an overwhelmingly white state like Utah, but you'd be wrong. Case in point:
San Juan County, in the southeast corner of the state. San Juan is 56 percent Navajo, but you'd never guess it by looking at the election results- the only Democrats ever to carry it were Bryan in 1896, Wilson in 1916, and Roosevelt in 1936.
Still, the local Navajo showed the same pro-Obama trend last year as virtually all Native Americans did, producing one of the bigger swings in the state. Recent election returns:
1992:
Bush 46%,
Clinton 38%,
Perot 13%,
Gritz 3%1996:
Dole 51%,
Clinton 40%,
Perot 7%2000:
Bush 57%,
Gore 39%,
Nader 2%2004:
Bush 60%,
Kerry 39%2008:
McCain 51%,
Obama 47%... which means that Obama did better than any Democrat since FDR in 1936.
But here's the point of the thread: the hilariously polarized precinct results from 2008.
Bluff:
Obama 83%Montezuma Creek:
Obama 86%Aneth:
Obama 79%"C Point":
McCain 68%Ucolo:
McCain 79%La Sal:
McCain 65%Spanish Valley:
McCain 57%Monticello (county seat):
McCain 81%Blanding (biggest town, and home of the only active uranium plant in America):
McCain 81%Mexican Hat:
Obama 83%Oljato:
Obama 84%Navajo Mountain:
Obama 73%Halls Crossing:
McCain 64%Red Mesa:
Obama 80%White Mesa:
Obama 97%If you can pick out the majority-white areas from the heavily Navajo territory, give yourself a cookie.
