democrats were counting on a rapid burst of diversification in the u.s. fueled by immigration to help hillary clinton. but it may have helped put donald trump in the white house. the more rapidly a county has diversified since the start of this century, the more likely voters there were to cast ballots for the republican nominee, a wall street journal analysis of voting results and census data shows. it appears to be one reason mr. trump turned some traditional blue states into red states, including wisconsin. the journal identified counties that had seen the most rapid demographic change since 2000 using the diversity index, a tool used by social scientists and economists. it measures the chance that any two people in a county will have a different race or ethnicity. the analysis concluded that small towns in the midwest diversified more quickly than almost any part of the u.s. between 2000 and 2015. most was a result of latinos moving into heavily white areas, particularly in iowa, indiana, wisconsin, illinois and minnesota. although southern border states have drawn a far greater number of mexican and other central american immigrants during this century<u+2019>s immigration wave, their diversity changed little because they have long had racially mixed populations. the gop nominee won about 67% of voters in counties where the diversity index rose by 150% or more, the journal<u+2019>s analysis of the vote tally as of late<u+00a0>wednesday found. mrs. clinton won about 29% of votes in those counties. although latinos and blacks are more likely to vote democratic, their increased presence in the rural midwest didn<u+2019>t translate to wins in key states, in part because newly arrived hispanic immigrants often aren<u+2019>t eligible to vote. exit polls showed<u+00a0>17% of trump backers said immigration was the most important issue facing the country, ranking it third among four, with the economy topping the list. trempealeau county, wis., a farming and manufacturing enclave in western wisconsin, hadn<u+2019>t voted for a republican presidential candidate since ronald reagan in 1984. a rush of latino immigrants into the town of arcadia there for jobs packing chickens and making furniture helped transform the town from virtually all white to more than one-third latino over roughly the past 15 years. residents there said that helped draw voters irked about crowding in public schools to mr. trump<u+2019>s candidacy. he won 54% of the vote in the county, while mrs. clinton took 42% of it. write to janet adamy at janet.adamy@wsj.com
counties that experienced rapid diversification voted heavily for donald trump - wsj
janet adamy paul overberg