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- Significant African-American population
whopping 27 points. Ninety-four percent of African-American
voters chose Kerry.
middle groups - Bush
but those age 30-59 gave Bush a decisive margin.
Above $30,000 - Bush
backed Kerry by an overwhelming margin - almost 3-to-1. The
working class also picked Kerry by a less crushing 11 points. But
from there it gets rocky. The middle and upper classes all picked
Bush by decisive margins. The further up the income scale, the
harder core the support. The lower middle class supported him
by 18 points while those in the highest bracket measurable
backed him by a 4-to-1 margin.
- Sizable Democratic tilt
- Very poor Democratic loyalty
- Excellent Republican loyalty
- Independents tilt strongly Republican
Louisiana, a rare Southern state with a Democratic plurality.
Democrats out number Republicans here - by 10 points. That's a
bigger margin than Democrats have in the reliably blue state of
California and one twice as big as that in Illinois. In fact, a larger
percentage of the population is Democratic in Arkansas than in
liberal Massachusetts. This should have been a piece of cake -
and indeed it was - for the wrong side. Why? One reason was
loyalty. Less than one Republican in 30 crossed party lines in the
election. Nearly one of every 5 Democrats did the same. A
similar example of a nasty defection rate in a Democratic state
would be West Virginia.
The other half of the problem. Lots of closet Republicans. Bush
beat Kerry by 22 points among those boasting no party affiliation.
Interestingly enough though, the moderates supported Kerry by a
significant margin.
- Small Catholic population
Bush by about the same margin.
- Significant urban population
- Very few suburbs
by 11 points. Much of that support came from small towns
however where Bush ran much better than in outlying areas. The
one fifth of the population classified as city dwellers voted Kerry
but not enthusiastically. The few suburbs heavily supported
Bush.
There is an interesting geographical divide in the state. Areas in
eastern and southern Arkansas were sharply divided between
the two candidates. The capital of Little Rock gave Bush a small
margin but the decisive block came from the third of the
population in the northwestern part of the state.
overwhelming.