… Our work suggests that when making voting decisions, people assess their economic position relative to members of their own communities rather than to folks in the whole country. …
We find local income position has a significant association with vote choice. As the data in the table show, support for Trump was strongest among the locally rich — that is, white voters with incomes that are high for their area, though not necessarily for the country as a whole. Of course, a majority of white voters across all of these categories supported Trump; our findings don’t contradict the importance of race in shaping the 2016 election. CONT.
Thomas Ogorzalek, Luisa Godinez Puig & Spencer Piston, Monkey Cage