America’s 100 most conservative-friendly counties: numbers 61-80

70. Benton County, Ark.
Largest city: Rogers

In 1962, Sam Walton built his first Wal-Mart in his hometown of Bentonville. Fifty years later, the largest corporate entity in America is a dominant commercial presence. Wal-Mart has attracted legions of other employers who wish to be close to the most powerful merchant in the world, turning the area into one of the fastest-growing in America. It is a 2-to-1 Republican county with strong conservative values. It’s no coincidence that famous Duggar family with their 19 children live here.

69. Gwinnett County, Ga.
Largest city: Lawrenceville

Gwinnett County is somewhat different than the county ranking two spots below. It has been undergoing suburbanization for a few decades more than the rest of Metro Atlanta. It is now the second-most-populated county in Georgia and unlike many suburban Atlanta counties, is nearly majority non-white as it contains the largest Asian and Hispanic population in the area. This partly explains why it only gave McCain 54 percent of the vote.

68. Hancock County, Ind.
Largest city: Greenfield

Another one of the “doughnut counties,” Hancock is located east of Indianapolis. Overflow from the city is just starting to come into the county. It is indicative of the standard of living in the doughnut counties, where high incomes stretch even further due to the low cost of living. It is also above 80 percent in the home ownership category.

67. Warrick County, Ind.
Largest city: Boonville

This Indiana county is not in suburban Indianapolis. Rather, it is on the southern border of the state, right above the Ohio River. The bulk of the population lives between adjacent Evansville and county seat Boonville. It has broken away from Southern Indiana’s Democratic heritage and is now solidly Republican.

66. Henry County, Ga.
Largest city: Stockbridge

Southeast of Atlanta, this county is a living example of how the South has transitioned from Old South to New South. Bridging both is Atlanta Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s major race tracks. Like Gwinnett County, it has a diverse population and its formerly overwhelming Republican margins have eroded somewhat.

65. Geauga County, Ohio
Largest municipality: Chester Township

The Cleveland area has long been a Democratic stronghold, but some of its suburbs are conservative. Geauga County is east of Cleveland and is the second-wealthiest county in Ohio. There aren’t any real massive suburban developments yet. It’s county seat, Chardon, is a small town of 5,000. The growth is occurring on the western borders. It also has a more than 85 percent home ownership rate.

64. Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska
Co-terminus with the City of Anchorage

If you can handle the cold weather, then Anchorage could be the best city for a conservative to live in. It has been labeled the most tax-friendly city in America by Kiplinger’s. In fact, due to Alaska’s dividends from oil receipts, residents get money that reduces even that minuscule tax burden. Anchorage has a strategic military presence, with a base downtown. And Alaska doesn’t even require a license for gun owners, the most lax state gun laws on the list. It is such a pleasant, prosperous city that it nearly won the Winter Olympics in the early 1990s. It would rate even higher except that it isn’t as overwhelmingly Republican as some of the other entries on the list and Alaska is among the least religious states.

63. Baldwin County, Ala.
Largest city: Daphne

There are two main areas of settlement in Baldwin County. The bulk of the population is part of the suburbs of Mobile, across the bay from the city itself. The new suburbs are prosperous Gulf Coast towns similar to those around Tampa or Houston. The other thrust of development are the resorts along the Gulf. Beaches like Gulf Shores are very similar to the white sand beaches in the Florida Panhandle. The county is about 3-to-1 Republican.

62. Bullitt County, Ky.
Largest city: Mount Washington

The Louisville area has grown significantly in recent years, and Bullitt County is one of two exurban Louisville counties to make this list. Development is still in its early stages, but this area is strongly conservative and is likely to make Kentucky even more conservative-friendly in the future. This is another suburban county around a traditionally German-American city (like Milwaukee, Cincinnati and St. Louis) to make the list. If you got a taste for liquor, then you’ll be right by the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont.

61. Santa Rosa County, Fla.
Largest city: Milton

This county, right next to aforementioned Pensacola, is also a conservative stronghold in the Florida Panhandle. The focus here is less on the beach (though there are some here) and more on the military. It is where much of Pensacola’s military population resides. The residential population is remarkably family-oriented considering how much of a military imprint there is here.

Look tomorrow for numbers 60-41.