Connections

What is driving the rightward shift in many American counties?

By Evan Dawson,

Megan Mack, Julie Williams

Published December 5, 2024 at 2:31 PM EST

A man with short curly light brown hair, glasses, and a short beard, wearing a black zip-up sweatshirt — Joseph Burgess

A smiling man with short dark hair wearing a blue button-down shirt and a grey blazer. He is holding a pair of eyeglasses. The word "Connections" appears on the left side of the photo in vertical letters.

Nearly 90 percent of American counties moved more to the political right in the recent election.

What is driving the shift? How durable is the Republican advantage? Monroe County moved rightward by two points.

Interestingly, two Finger Lakes counties — Yates and Tompkins — were among the rare counties to shift further left than 2020.

Our guest discusses the reddening of America in 2024:

Joseph Burgess, team leader at the Social Sciences Data Lab at the University of Copenhagen

Tags

Connections Monroe County elections 2024

Evan Dawson

Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.

See stories by Evan Dawson

Megan Mack

Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.

See stories by Megan Mack

Julie Williams

Julie Williams is an associate producer for "Connections with Evan Dawson" and is also the office administrator for radio, news and technology and operations. She started at WXXI in 2019 and has been working on Connections since 2022.

See stories by Julie Williams