Trump Counties Make Up Just 29 Percent Of U.S. Economic Output, 2020 Election Study Shows

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu Nov 12, 2020, 11:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: MSN/Newsweek

Counties won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden make up 70 percent of all U.S. economic output—or gross domestic product (GDP)—a new post-election study finds. Biden has repeated the phrase "there are no blue states or red states, just the United States" in several appeals to President Donald Trump's voters since being named President-elect Saturday. But the more than 75.6 million votes Biden won in the 2020 election led him to victory in nearly all of the country's top 100 most powerful local economies.

Meanwhile, Trump voter counties make up less than one-third of the country's economic output, a Brookings Institution study said. The president's unsuccessful re-election bid hinged on his touting of the pre-pandemic economy. But his railing against urban areas as "crime "Trump's losing base of 2,497 counties represents just 29% of the economy," the post-election analysis co-authors found.

Brookings Senior Fellow Mark Muro told Newsweek Thursday that Biden won 94 of the biggest GDP counties, while Trump won only six: New York's Nassau and Suffolk counties; Texas' Collin County; California's Kern County; and Oklahoma's Tulsa and Oklahoma counties. Trump's urban-versus-rural 2020 campaign narrative further widened the definition of blue and red states, meaning the Republican won 7 percent fewer population-heavy economic powerhouses than he did in 2016. Biden's 70 percent GDP share this year came from the 477 U.S. counties he won compared to the 29 percent GDP share held in the 2,497 counties won by the president.

The study authors noted that Democrat control of heavily populated, economic city centers is hardly new. But the Republican Party's honing in on sparsely populated rural landmasses in order to hold onto votes has led lawmakers to reject things like coronavirus pandemic aid to cities, and to dismiss urban issues as partisan problems for their political rivals to handle. Biden flipped five of the 10 most economically powerful counties Trump won over Clinton four years ago: Phoenix's Maricopa County; Dallas-Fort Worth's Tarrant County; Jacksonville, Florida's Duval County; New Jersey's Morris County; and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida's Pinellas County...



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-counties-make-up-just-29-percent-of-u-s-economic-output-2020-election-study-shows/ar-BB1aXiBz

[Blue Owl]

1. Freeloading welfare maggots -- maybe they need to be cut off for awhile

[bullimiami]

3. it explains why they are so aggrieved. they are the have nots of the USA.

unfortunately they put their faith in the hucksters, grifters and liars rather than those that would actually help them.

[appalachiablue]

4. What a hustle: the billionaires and peoples grievance party

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[PSPS]

6. Yet their influence is ridiculously outsized thanks to the senate and the electoral college

Both vestiges of slavery.

[BigmanPigman]

7. Olbermann did a good rant about this a few days ago....

[ffr]

8. About what I'd expect. The majority working as slaves for the minority.

[disalitervisum]

9. And the holdover portion of our population that adhere to 14th century values

still rule us, exactly why, again?

[The Wizard]

10. Civil War reconstruction should have ended 100 years ago.

[ancianita]

11. This is a Big Deal. It means that Trumpism is OUT for Wall St and banks.

[progressoid]

12. A lot of those counties used to be Democratic counties.

[radius777]

13. Taxation without representation.

Hillary's counties also accounted for about 2/3 of GDP, she spoke about this, how all the areas that voted Dem were the most dynamic and diverse.

The system as currently constructed cannot go on - if we are to be a functioning democracy - as blue America gets nothing out of this.

Red, retrograde America has far more power than their population and their output.

[HariSeldon]

14. Evangelicals plant churches, maybe we need to plant cities

Republicans want to claim they are for small government, personal responsibility, and freedom? What if we get together a pile of money, make some agreements (which will, leaning to Democratic ideals, repulse Republicans from participating), buy some land and set up shop in some of these lightly populated states that are perpetually sending Republicans to D.C. to the detriment of all America? A whole bunch of work has shifted to remote, so maybe the right incentives could snag a bunch of Democrats willing to work on structurally tipping the scales back toward balance.

[appalachiablue]

15. Not a bad idea. Before Covid, I read plenty how top work centers

in the US are concentrating into fewer and fewer giant cities, namely NY, Boston, DC, LA, San Fran, Seattle and maybe Atl, Raleigh, NC, etc. But the trend to megacities may be changing.

Clearly the increase in pandemics and climate crises will have a large impact and possibly favor less large, urban areas as well, sooner than later. As you say, the rise of telework could also help to foster growth in more red areas.

New real estate reports indicate some people are leaving big congested 'covid' centers- the wealthy to the country and those that are white collar and able to telework relocating to suburban areas and smaller cities with larger homes and space for offices, and kids learning remote from home.

There was a great chance for this last year with Amazon's two new supercenters for which they recruited bids from smaller cities that could have benefitted from it. Yet they decided on DC-NoVA and NY. Suggestions for other non-major cities were met with complaints that the education and infrastructure systems were not up to speed for Amazon's 'talented workforce.'

[SWBTATTReg]

19. Economic trends seem to be indicating that folks who are selling their high priced homes, usually

located on either coast (for the most part) are moving to lower priced locations in the US, e.g., in the mid west, etc., where they can get a decent sized home w/ spare change in the bank account. Personally, I think that these folks were lucky as hell to have such a hot market to sell their original homes, but I do know that some regret it later, from those that I've talked to later.

I see this trend where I'm at in St. Louis MO (the moving from higher mortgaged/higher priced homes to lower mortgages/prices). I see this where I'm. However, recently (over last 5 years or so) I'm not seeing as many friends (when they retire) move to FL or similar places. It used to happen, all of the time, they would retire, and then do the move to FL routine. I guess FL is getting too expensive too.

I also used to see lots of retirees move to the Country/rural areas of Missouri, and build that dream home that they've always wanted, but I haven't seen this happen as often as before. They (and I know this first hand) miss the urban amenities that large urban areas offer, the museums, the additional shopping, the sheer number of restaurants, the parks, etc., bike paths, the list goes on. Now of course I'm not knocking those that do live in rural areas, I at one had such a place, and loved it, and the neighbors.

But due to medical reasons, I kept my home in STLMO city (close to doctors and hospitals etc.), but on the downside, a lot of my friends still moved away. Life is a series of ongoing compromises from day to day.

[iemitsu]

16. Wyoming has fewer than 600,000 people.

One medium sided city of liberals could change their politics.
But it's Wyoming.

[modrepub]

17. Keep Taxes Local

This contributes to higher taxes in suburban and urban areas because they have to make up for diverted state and federal tax receipts. Then these areas, now generally democratic, get dinged for "tax and spend". I've said many times on this board, make the Republicans practice their principles. Don't like socialism? Then make it work on your resources. Stop taking from more economically productive areas. For example the tariff/farm bill diversion.

[raccoon]

18. Let them secede--I'll move to a blue location. Nt

[Progressive Jones]

20. They are still the same drain on the US as they were during The Confederacy. nt