re: #187 HappyWarrior

You’re from SC granted not OC, what do you think the reason for that is? It’s my understanding Vietnamese-Americans that make up a fair percentage of the vote in OC have left the GOP for the Dems or at least their children are more likely to vote Dem than GOP.

I live in Long Beach now, but basically grew up in Orange County and lived/worked there through my mid-30s.

Orange County had been trending blue for a while, Bush beat Kerry 60-39 in 2004 but Obama did considerably better losing in 2008 50-48 and then in 2012 52-46 (which probably had something to do with the Mormon population out here turning out from Romney).

My guess is that it’s probably because the county is becoming more diverse, specifically a larger Latino population in towns like Anaheim and Santa Ana; and the Asian population in towns like Irvine. It’s also not an area that gets too riled up on social issues - for example, there’s a couple of Planned Parenthood offices out here and you never see protesters - so the more the GOP bangs on social issues, the less receptive voters are going to be. Beyond that, while the county is definitely suburban as a whole, it’s moved closer to urban than it is to rural - when I was in junior high, the city counsel used to describe Yorba Linda as “semi-rural” but beyond a few old neighborhoods still zoned for horses, the town does not look rural. And that holds true for a lot of the county.