America’s 100 most conservative-friendly counties: numbers 81-100

90. El Dorado County, Calif.
Largest community: El Dorado Hills

This county in suburban Sacramento is one of the few reliable Republican counties of any size left in California. It has voted about 15 to 20 points more Republican than the state average in the past two presidential elections. The western part of the county consists of fast-growing suburbs. The county is one of a few in California with home ownership higher than the national average. The eastern edge is Lake Tahoe, the deep blue lake home to year-round resorts and where Fredo Corleone met his demise.

89. Placer County, Calif.
Largest city: Roseville

Placer County is essentially a carbon copy of El Dorado County, but twice as big. Roseville is a massive suburb of Sacramento developing on the edge of the county. This is still Republican territory. The disaster status of California, particularly for conservatives, severely penalizes it in the rankings. It is part of a state with very high taxes, restrictive gun laws, low religious attendance, dominant public sector unions, and the most permissive abortion laws in America. On the plus side, Roseville was rated the skinniest place in America.

88. Greene County, Mo.
Largest city: Springfield

Springfield is a building block of Red America. It’s home to a strong country-western musical tradition. The largest Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, is headquartered in here as are Bass Pro Shops. And if that isn’t enough to convince you, Branson is a stone’s throw away.

87. Butler County, Ohio
Largest city: Hamilton

Cincinnati has always been one of the most Republican cities north of the Mason-Dixon line. While the central city has lost much of its heritage, the spreading suburbs have adopted the previous conservative tendencies of the city root and branch. John Boehner hails from Butler County, which in the past few decades have transitioned from rural to suburban, keeping its Republicanism intact. Boehner is a product of the extensive Catholic school system in the area, which by many counts has the greatest proportion of students in Catholic schools.

86. Guadalupe County, Texas
Largest city: Seguin

This county, once a haven for German immigrants, is now on the edge of suburban development in San Antonio. Growth has only really occurred in the last decade, so there is lots of potential. The early tone is heavily conservative, as befits a suburban Texas county. The property tax issue isn’t as great here, and it benefits from Texas’s very conservative friendly atmosphere. In that respect, it is the anti-California.

85. Sarpy County, Neb.
Largest city: Bellevue

Sarpy County is where Lewis and Clark entered the state of Nebraska for the first time. Today, it is the fast growing suburbs of Omaha, which itself leans Republican. If Omaha leans Republican, Sarpy County belly flops to the right. It is an affluent county with lots of young families — something it has in common with most counties on the list. It also houses a major Air Force base.

84. Scott County, Minn.
Largest city: Shakopee

Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes. It could also be viewed as the state with 10,000(-plus) liberals. This one state produced Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, Paul Wellstone and Al Franken. However, growth in the suburban Twin Cities has shifted Minnesota to the right. The fastest-growing places are like Scott County, a county south of Minneapolis that has doubled in population in the last 20 years. It is not overwhelmingly Republican, but it has the single highest rate of home ownership on this list.  Minnesota has become a swing state in large part due to a series of counties like this.

83. Orange County, Calif.
Largest city: Santa Ana

No other county on this list is as famous for its conservatism as Orange County. This southern California county of 3 million possesses such conservative institutions as Disneyland, the Crystal Cathedral, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and an airport named after John Wayne. It has been as close to free-market as possible, allowing a major land developer to pretty much determine the course of the southern part of the county for decades. While Ronald Reagan didn’t live here, nowhere in America shared Reagan’s vision more closely. Thirty or 40 years ago, Orange County likely would have topped this list.

Why is it all the way down at number 83? To be honest, its inclusion is based more upon its intangibles and historical conservatism than its present reality. Much of it is not the county’s fault. The California housing crunch has undermined its previously enviable standard of living. Orange County, the definition of bourgeois comfort, now has a home ownership rate below the national average. It still is generally Republican, but the county went from giving Reagan 75 percent to giving George W. Bush 59 percent to McCain squeaking by with 50.2 percent of the vote. All of the long-term problems afflicting conservatism — a more diverse America, dominance of public sector unions, coastal/elite secularism, have hit here hard.

82. Wagoner County, Okla.
Largest city: Coweta

Wagoner County is a suburb of Tulsa, itself a Republican stronghold, that is just beginning to develop. Oklahoma was McCain’s single best state in 2008, and Wagoner County was even more Republican than the state average. It isn’t inordinately wealthy, but the mostly new residents are getting by just fine. Considering that Tulsa is a booming city, this promises to be one of the fastest growing counties in America the next few decades.

81. Rogers County, Okla.
Largest city: Claremore

The story is similar here. This suburb of Tulsa is just developing. The county embodies some of the contradictions of modern conservatism. It is highly educated but also strictly religious (Oral Roberts hails from Tulsa). Similarly, it is one of the wealthiest counties in the Plain States, but more affluent counties nationwide are more liberal, not more conservative. Claremore was home to one of the first Wal-Marts outside of Arkansas.

Look tomorrow for part two, numbers 80-61.