Inside the WhiteStakes

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I wanted to add a bit more to my post below about how our first two nominating states – Iowa and New Hampshire – are basically lily white, while America gets less white and the Democratic party is now effectively a multi-racial party in which whites make up at most a bit over half the voters. I’ve been digging into the American Community Survey, the Census Bureau’s broad survey of numerous demographic characteristics of the US population. And man, Iowa and New Hampshire are really, really white.

The numbers are the numbers. But there are ways of capturing them that capture the reality in a pretty stark way.

Here’s one. Until 2005, both New Hampshire and Iowa were on the list of the 5 whitest states in America.

As recently as 2005, both New Hampshire and Iowa were whiter than Idaho and Wyoming!

The only things that have changed are that in 2008 Idaho knocked Iowa out of the Top 5 – presumably because of Iowa’s still small but rapidly growing Hispanic population. Then in 2011 Vermont lost its title as whitest state in the country. Not lost entirely, mind you. It moved into a tie with Maine in 2011 and 2012. Vermont briefly recaptured the title in 2013. But Maine moved clearly into the lead in 2014. Can’t win’em all.

In any case, still today, our first two nominating states, which have a huge role in winnowing the field for the presidency, if not always determining the winner, are both on the list of the whitest states in the country.

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