Trump Counties Get a Boost

Brookings: “From 2010 to 2017, counties that voted for Clinton added jobs at a rate of 1.7 percent annually, compared to the 1.5 percent growth rate in Trump-voting areas. But in 2017 and 2018, the pattern looks different.”

“From January 2017 to September 2018, both Clinton and Trump counties saw an uptick in job creation. However, the increase was significantly larger in Trump counties where the annualized rate of growth increased from 1.5 percent to 2.6 percent a year.”

“Given that, the locus of growth really is a little different than it was in the lead-up to the 2016 election. As before, the 490 counties that voted for Clinton continue to massively predominate in the sheer volume and productivity of their economic activity. Together they accounted for two-thirds of the nation’s employment growth and three-quarters of its GDP growth. But during the first 21 months of the Trump administration, as people and jobs once again begin to spread out and sprawl, job growth rates in the 2,622 Trump-voting counties have gone from lagging behind those in Clinton counties to outpacing them. Redder, smaller, more exurban, and rural counties really are ‘winning’ a little more—at least for now.”