Editing Henry County, Illinois (section)

==Politics==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2021}}
Henry County's political history is fairly typical of many [[Yankee]]-settled rural counties in Illinois. After being largely Democratic in its first few elections, the county turned powerfully Republican for the 110 years following the formation of that party. The only time it did not vote Republican between 1856 and 1960 was in 1912 when the GOP was mortally divided and [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]] won a majority of the county's ballots. In 1964, when the Republican Party nominated the Southern-oriented [[Barry Goldwater]], Henry County voted Democratic for the first time since 1852, but as was typical for Yankee counties it returned to the Republicans with the selection of the more moderate [[Richard Nixon]].

In the 1980s, the transition of the Republican Party into a party largely based around [[Southern United States|Southern]] Evangelicals severely alienated its historic Yankee base: Henry County turned to Democrat [[Michael Dukakis]] in 1988, and voted Democratic in every election between 1988 and 2012 except that of 2004 when [[George W. Bush]] carried the county by 5.1 percent. However, concern with unemployment and trade deals in the “[[Rust Belt]]” resulted in a powerful swing to Republican [[Donald Trump]] in 2016 – the worst Democratic result in the county since [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1980. In 2020, Trump built on his win in 2016, capturing 60% of the vote - the highest Republican percentage in 40 years.

{{PresHead|place=Henry County, Illinois|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Atlas of US Presidential Elections|first=David|last=Leip|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=May 1, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323225526/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|archive-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|15,359|9,226|596|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|15,300|9,797|604|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|13,985|8,871|1,787|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|11,583|12,332|490|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|11,263|13,181|405|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|13,212|11,877|152|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|10,896|11,921|653|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|8,393|11,201|2,303|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|8,989|11,077|4,305|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|11,358|11,594|96|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|14,504|10,679|79|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|14,506|7,977|1,723|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|12,849|9,822|263|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|14,796|8,368|21|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|12,524|8,455|1,752|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|10,644|12,085|0|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|14,297|10,372|21|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|15,896|8,349|39|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|16,301|8,558|33|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|12,363|8,489|159|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|13,539|9,130|92|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|14,971|10,481|196|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1936|Republican|11,953|11,490|651|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1932|Republican|11,376|10,122|701|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|14,666|5,858|183|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|13,159|1,944|3,076|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|12,379|2,530|768|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|11,406|5,220|808|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|1,859|2,219|5,085|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|6,387|2,499|1,011|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|7,331|1,390|1,117|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|6,892|2,809|354|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|6,177|2,971|207|Illinois}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Republican|4,265|2,670|705|Illinois}}