Super Tuesday in Massachusetts, By the Numbers

Photo via AP

Massachusetts voters turned out in record numbers on Super Tuesday to cast their votes in the presidential primary. Here’s a brief look at some of the big numbers from Tuesday’s election. As a reminder, all numbers are unofficial until they are formally certified by the state.

Turnout

Total: 1,836,075

Republican 631,151

Democratic 1,204,924

Even though final turnout was below the official state projection of 2,113,000, it still smashed the 2008 primary record of 1,767,704. Democratic turnout was down slightly while Republicans set an all-time high for turnout, blasting through the 600,000 mark for the first time ever. This is definitely evidence of an enthusiasm gap between the two parties. The large gap in support does not mean Massachusetts will be in play in November, however. It would take a historic shift in attitudes and voter preferences to make that happen.

Areas of Strength

On the Democratic side of things, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demonstrated strength in the state’s urban areas and nearly everything within Route 128. Clinton also found strongholds of support in wealthier communities like Duxbury and Cohasset. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders found strong support nearly everywhere else, including in the state’s more rural and suburban areas. One of the more notable areas of support for Sanders: Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

New York reality television star Donald Trump destroyed the Republican Party, winning all but 18 municipalities in the state. Trump’s areas of strength were everywhere. Ohio Gov. John Kasich cut a small path in the MetroWest area, but otherwise was blown out all over the state by Trump.

Demographics

Even though he attacked the pope weeks earlier, Trump still managed to win the votes of more than 53 percent of Republican Catholics in Massachusetts. In fact, Trump actually won every single demographic in Massachusetts with ease. The only demographic Trump stumbled with was individuals with postgraduate degrees and he still did better with them than anybody else.

State Democrats have professed a desire for unity in their party, but demographics tell a different story. The two candidates won their respective genders and split the white vote down the middle, but Clinton won with older voters and non-whites. Sanders dominated younger, uneducated people while Clinton cleaned up with older, highly educated voters. Exit polling data showed Clinton winning high income voters while all others went for Sanders.

Quirky Returns 

Sanders won Methuen by one vote. Yeah, one vote. Small towns like Ashfield and Buckland saw similarly close results. Trump did very well in working class communities on the North Shore:

Revere 73%
Everett 69%
Saugus 68%
Lynn 63%
Winthrop 63%
Chelsea 60%

Then there is the curious case of Chelsea, where for a brief period former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore was winning by a wide margin. After election workers reviewed the polling data they found a tabulation error awarded Gilmore some of Trump’s votes. When the error was corrected, Gilmore was left with just two votes, a fitting total for a candidate who had one major debate appearance before dropping out.

Sanders and Trump won all of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.