Many Places Hard Hit By COVID-19 Leaned More Toward Trump In 2020 Than 2016

Chart of votes and COVID-19 deaths

Sean McMinn / NPR

Support for President Trump increased in 2020 in many of the U.S. counties that lost lives at the highest rate to COVID-19, according to an NPR analysis.

Of the 100 counties with the highest COVID-19 death rates per capita, 68 had a higher proportion of votes cast for Trump this cycle than they did in 2016. This includes both Republican-leaning counties and counties that supported Joe Biden.

“It’s surprising to see that the president surged compared to 2016 in the areas that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic,” says Thad Kousser, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego.