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The board is conservative and the students have a conservative Greek scene vibe. Louis DeJoy of the whole Post Office thing is on Elon's Board of Trustees.
The faculty have never been conservative. Many years ago, the administration was always conservative, but that may have changed.
Alamance County is stuck in a time warp, in terms of it being a very conservative backwater of folks wanting to relitigate the Civil War, yet being surrounded by more "woke" areas such as the Triad and the Triangle. Don't count on it going blue any time soon, if ever.
Regarding Elon University, it is definitely liberal and has gotten more so as it has grown in size and reputation. That is not a bad thing and is in fact typical of most universities. I am sure that the antics of Alamance County is a complete embarrassment to the school. My son went to Elon, and that was the sense when he was there.
I agree that Alamance Co is unlikely to go blue anytime soon. There are quite a few confederate flags I pass every time I go to Saxapahaw.
Elon might be moderate, but I would not call it liberal with Louis DeJoy on the board of trustees. Elon is white and wealthy. It has a pretty big frat scene. Words used to describe Elon students BY Elon students according to Niche are "Preppy", "Motivated", "Wealthy". Words/phrases used to describe the school by students are "Beautiful", "Country club", "Greek". Compare to Guilford (another small LAC 30 minutes away ini Greensboro) where students said: "Hippie", "Social Justice Warrior", "A combination of hipster and hippie" and "Different", "Extraordinary", "Keep Guilford Weird."
Elon is not super conservative like Liberty University or anything, but there are many more liberal colleges and universities in NC, I don't think Elon has that much impact on Alamance County and its centrist/slight left political stance does not affect the community very much. Most of the kids who go there are from out of state (usually up north). Elon does not have the impact a UNC or Duke or even App State has.
Full disclosure: my kids go/went to school in Alamance Co and we have been to Elon on several occasions. It's pretty in a red brick kinda way (no UNC, my alma mater, but probably prettier than State), but my kids said it was way too preppy for them to even consider. They are pretty unconventional, though, and definitely not interested in a Greek scene or any of that.
Generally speaking, you can tell where 85 is in Alamance County since a good chunk of the Blue precincts are located along the highway. Outside of that, Alamance is pretty red with a couple of exceptions.
Last edited by Renownedtheworldaround; 11-14-2020 at 10:37 PM..
The difference is a private university and the others mentioned are public universities. Elon’s students would normally be more conservative. I believe that many southern counties were Democratic prior to the 1960s. But in the mid 1960s, many southern counties flipped to conservative.
But counties with large public universities remained Democratic along with growing and more urban counties. There have been a growing number of these counties over the years. Much of this is driven by transplants.
But it is somtimes the case that young people in their 20s vote Democratic but switch to conservative as they get older. And then there is a large portion of population does not care or has no affiliation.
But counties with large public universities remained Democratic along with growing and more urban counties. There have been a growing number of these counties over the years. Much of this is driven by transplants.
And interestingly, many counties, often more rural or suburban, that are seeing large numbers of transplants are staying solidly red or even getting more red. Brunswick is a great example.
And interestingly, many counties, often more rural or suburban, that are seeing large numbers of transplants are staying solidly red or even getting more red. Brunswick is a great example.
That's true. Keep in mind though that Brunswick's growth has been mainly from retired people who skew more towards being Republican.
As far as transplants, I think that while many are coming for reasons completely unrelated to political preference (jobs, weather, costs of living, family already residing here), and many of those are from areas that are traditionally "bluer" than NC, there is also that group that may factor in the politics into their relocation decisions and basically stratify to different places based on that.
You can sometimes see it on this forum with the "Got to move away from the leftist, socialist, blah blah blah run New York- Is North Carolina right for me?" kinds of discussions. Those folks do tend to skew towards extremes if they are motivated enough to deal with the hassle of an out-of-state move in order to find local politics that match their own points of view. I've known a few people like that in real life, and they are pretty extreme with their political beliefs.
Last edited by Jowel; 11-19-2020 at 07:55 PM..
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