Rural Americans, often socially and fiscally conservative, tend to vote at higher rates for Republicans than the nation overall. This year, when the country leaned Republican, the rate went up in rural areas too, says the Daily Yonder. “Compared to the national elections in 2008 and 2012, metropolitan and nonmetropolitan votes for Republicans grew at about the same rate,” says the Yonder. Kentucky was an exception – rural voters gave Sen Mitch McConnell a 34.5-point margin, compared to 15 percent in town.
In Iowa, senator-elect Joni Ernst “significantly improved GOP performance,” said the Yonder. She won the city and rural vote; Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won rural vote in 2012 but lost in cites and in small towns.