How conservative is coastal southwest Washington compared to Eastern Washington?

Submitted by PinkSwallowLove t3_yrgh14 in Washington

People often talk about how conservative the eastern half of Washington is, but another area that seems to lean conservative but is less talked about is southwest Washington, specifically Pacific County and Grays Harbor County. Coastal communities in the US typically lean to the left but southwest Washington seems to defy this usual pattern. What historical/economic/political factors explain why this is? And furthermore, how does the conservatism of southwest Washington compare to the conservatism of eastern Washington?

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UnkleRinkus t1_ivtlgql wrote

It's pretty similar. You have small towns with historic economic bases of logging and fishing - extractive industries that have been hit hard by automation and regulation, resulting in job loss and young people moving out of the area. The people moving into the area are retirees, and the lower end of the economic strata. Hence the area is pretty right leaning.

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gothling13 t1_ivto2pi wrote

There’s also a lot of resentment towards the government due to how the impact of spotted owl protection affected the logging industry there. Those sentiments tend to push people to the right.

Source: My wife is from Grays Harbor and I have to hear about it every time we visit.

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Specialist_Ad7724 t1_ivvki29 wrote

I agree with you on everything other than the retirees being conservative. Granted some of them are, but my personal experience with retirees moving to the coast is a lot of educators, lawyers, doctors- people who can afford to retire properly at the beach, left leaning. The conservative comes from the local population.

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amaninseattle t1_ivtpu9j wrote

The same, but with even less economic opportunity. Totally dependent on natural resource exploitation—lots of multi-generational poverty now exacerbated by meth and political brain rot.

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hoehater t1_ivtvpg3 wrote

Lots of old angry homophobic racists… so pretty much exactly the same.

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fawandfee t1_ivty2vc wrote

These communities were actually some of the most consistently Democratic counties in the nation until 2016, and are pretty evenly split. Currently, Marie Perez is carrying Pacific County by 5 points and Derek Kilmer is winning Grays Harbor by 3. But you can certainly attribute the conservative sentiment in these areas to the general distrust of government that is typical of most rural enclaves.

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Rocketgirl8097 t1_ivu85p4 wrote

I live in red Benton county. Judging by social media comments we have some very mean spirited people here (cheering or wishing natural disaster on the west side for example). Also lots of the law doesn't apply to me types. And then the conspiracy nuts. I think there are less of those in the west side counties.

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Specialist_Ad7724 t1_ivvjwoa wrote

It’s economically depressed, so that indicates conservative. It’s a bit more of a mixed bag because many of the retirees are left leaning. Overall pretty Trumpy, which is funny because they complain about how awful liberal America and Seattle and Olympia look, but they live in utter poverty.

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MarmotMossBay t1_ivvs6u7 wrote

We are pretty happy in Jefferson county that Smiley wasn’t elected. Some of us anyway

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