Josh Marshall turns in a brilliant piece on the historical roots of Hillary Clinton’s victories in several eastern states: it’s not the whites, it’s the mountains. This post weaves together history and current demography to paint a compelling picture of the current primary race. It would be interesting to know if this same theory bears itself out in other voting records in other races, primary and general:

Talking Points Memo | Upcountry

. . . During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the middle Atlantic and particularly in the Southern states, there was a long-standing cleavage between the coastal and ‘piedmont’ regions on the one hand and the upcountry areas to the west on the other. It’s really the coastal lowlands and the Appalachian districts. On the other side of the Appalachian mountain range the pattern is flipped, with the Appalachians in the east and the lowlands in the west. . .