Red Counties, Blue Counties, and Occupational Segregation by Sex and Race

Abstract

A large body of research examines relationships between social class and voting behavior in the United States, but there have been no systematic studies of how occupational segregation structures voting outcomes across many local settings. This article argues that electoral outcomes in the United States are strongly influenced by inequality between men and women and between whites and nonwhites, with that inequality being rooted in occupational segregation. Republican candidates should receive their strongest electoral support in locations where occupations are highly segregated by sex and by race, particularly in settings where segregation is most vulnerable to penetration. The argument finds support in statistical analyses of county‐level variation in Republican voting in the 2004 presidential election.