The bellwether rings true no extra.
For almost a quarter-century, voters in Clallam County, Wash. — a lush inexperienced dot within the far nook of the nation — have gone with the winner in 11 straight presidential elections. That’s an unmatched degree of precision amongst greater than 3,000 counties nationwide.
However the streak, courting to 1980, ended on Tuesday as voters favored Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump, by a decisive 53% to 44% margin. Whereas there are nonetheless votes to be counted, Harris’ lead seems sure to carry.
Which means there aren’t any bellwether counties left in America; heading into the 2020 election there have been almost 20. After that, Clallam County — roughly balanced politically between its three small inhabitants facilities and sparsely populated rural reaches — stood alone.
(Yours really visited the county and took the measure of voter sentiments in September, simply after the Trump-Harris debate: On the time, neither candidate was working away with the competition and just about everybody was firmly dug into their positions.)
Marc Abshire, director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce and a Harris supporter, mentioned he was proud the county went for the Democratic ticket “but also disappointed we’re losing our bellwether status because of it.”
“Out here, we just didn’t have the grievance vote that most of the rest of the country seemed to have,” Abshire mentioned.
Setting apart any bruised pleasure, he mentioned there are many causes to go to the area, past its former political prescience.
“We’re lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places in the nation, if not the world,” Abshire mentioned. “We have the sea and mile-high mountains all in our front and backyards. Our weather is always temperate.”
Folks will simply have to start out trying elsewhere for a political barometer.
