And then it was done

He might have won West Virginian hearts in almost ever demographic, but it didn't help him in the rest of the United States. In fact, West Virginia went almost the complete opposite of the greater voting population on November 4th. This might have had something to with the almost non-existent minority influence in the state, including blacks. In the CBS exit polls an unmeasurable number of black, Hispanic and Asian voters turned out in the state, all together making up about 5 percent of the voting population. Those who thought race was important factor (about 20 percent of the vote) voted 62 to 34 percent for McCain, though those who thought it was not an important factor were about equally split with a slight tilt for McCain.

All in all, the state went about 55 percent to 43 percent for McCain, with whites voting almost 60/40 for him. He won among
*all age groups
*men and women
*those who want a president who shared their values
*those who wanted a president who "cared about people like [them]"
*Republicans
*Independents (almost 60/40)
*Those who somewhat approve or somewhat disapprove of President Bush
*Evangelicals
*All education levels EXCEPT those with post-graduate degrees
*Those of all income levels EXCEPT those that make less than $30,000/year
*Those that decided on their candidate before September (55 percent of voters)
*Voters who felt terrorism was the most important issue
*Suburbs and small town/rural voter (95 percent)

Obama won amongst those that
*Decided on their candidate in early October
*Decided on their candidate sometime in September
*Thought bringing about change was the most important thing
*Democrats
*Those that strongly disagree with Bush
*Those who though the state of the economy is "poor"
*Labor union voters



Interestingly McCain won narrowly even among those who thought the economy was the main issue, but the majority of McCain voters had also made their decision months ago, suggesting the partisanship--not the economy--was the main issue for these voters. McCain even won among low-income, union, and less-educated voters.

Certainly the worries last month about West Virginia going blue were unfounded, and McCain wishes better represented the country as a whole.