Who will be the next president of the United States?
Just ask the voters of Vigo County.
They have correctly voted for the winning presidential candidate in 29 out of the last 31 elections.
Even though the area typically leans Democrat, a Republican mayor and prosecutor have just been elected to their third terms in office.
Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett has this explanation:
“It’s because they’ve really looked at the person. It’s not about ‘can’t vote for Republican or Democrat,’ they just say, ‘Is this the right person to run and running, is this the person I want to run the city or the county or whatever’ and they’ve voted that way and they feel very comfortable with that,” Bennett says.
Indiana State University American politics professor Matthew Bergbower says Vigo County’s mix of white and blue collar jobs, small business and family farms creates a good political balance.
“Vigo County looks like it has a pretty good balance between Republicans, Democrats and Independents,” Bergbower says. “And with that formula at its basic level, we can probably produce some Democrats winning the county and some Republican presidential candidates winning the county and that’s what we’re seeing over the past few decades.”
