In deep-blue Massachusetts, some towns like to vote red
In the 2012 presidential election, residents of the Merrimack Valley town of Boxford voted the same way they had for over a generation: Republican. Forty miles to the south, Randolph voters overwhelmingly backed the Democratic ticket, just as they had for decades.
The familiar narrative is that Massachusetts is among the bluest of states, a Democratic Party stronghold with an idiosyncratic penchant for electing Republican governors. But a Globe review of presidential election data going back to 1972 shows a more complex picture of the Commonwealth’s varied communities.
It’s a view that, come the morning after Election Day, may help explain if some local results are out of sync with the rest of the state.
“There are a lot of independents in Boxford, but most are Republicans at heart,” said Lee McMahon, a Democrat who retired to Boxford, known for its scenic farms and ponds, about five years ago.
The state has leaned Democratic since 1928, when voters backed Al Smith’s futile run against Herbert Hoover. In the past 88 years, Massachusetts has supported Republican presidential candidates only four times: voting twice for Dwight D. Eisenhower and twice for Ronald Reagan.
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