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Fact check: Which Massachusetts counties or cities gave the highest share of votes to Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020?
Executive Summary
Donald Trump’s strongest county-level support in Massachusetts in the 2020 presidential election concentrated in a handful of western and southeastern counties, with Bristol, Hampden, and Worcester repeatedly cited as the counties that supplied his highest vote shares and raw vote totals in published tallies; official compilations list Hampden as among the top percent-share counties and Worcester and Bristol among the largest Republican vote hauls [1] [2]. The available material in the package does not include comprehensive 2016 county-by-county percentages for direct comparison, and local town-level reporting from 2024 highlights a stable geography of Republican strength — towns in Plymouth, Bristol, Worcester, and Hampden counties that favored Trump in 2024 mirror the pockets where he performed best previously — which provides contextual continuity but not a definitive 2016 list in the provided dataset [3] [4].
1. Pulling the claim apart: What the original analyses actually assert and where they diverge
The user-supplied analyses assert two related claims: that Bristol, Hampden, and Worcester counties were among the highest in vote share for Trump in 2020 and that certain towns — notably Acushnet and several small western and southeastern towns — delivered the highest local shares in more recent contests. The dataset excerpts explicitly record raw vote totals (e.g., Hampden 87,318; Bristol 119,872; Worcester 171,683) and percentage figures (Hampden 39.6%, Bristol 42.5%, Worcester 39.5%) attributed to the 2020 general election [2] [1]. One of the map-based summaries describes county-level color shading by winner and margin but does not list a full ordered table; this limits precision when ranking every county strictly by percentage across the state [4]. The analyses are therefore consistent on the broad point — these three counties were among the highest for Trump in 2020 — but they stop short of providing a formal statewide rank or a verified 2016-to-2020 comparison.
2. Who’s reporting these numbers and how recent are the citations?
The principal figures for the 2020 contest come from a tabulation dated November 23, 2020, which lists county percentages and raw totals used in the user analysis and is the most directly relevant contemporaneous source for the 2020 results cited here [1]. A separate 2020-oriented summary and county map provide corroborating county-level visuals and totals, updated in datasets incorporated into later public dashboards [2] [4]. Local news coverage from November 2024 supplies town-level results and notes continuity in Republican strongholds — for example, reporting that Acushnet delivered a 72% share for Trump in 2024 and naming towns that have consistently given Trump high percentages, which helps explain geographic persistence but is not a direct source for 2016 figures [3]. Two local sources referenced were inaccessible due to location restrictions and therefore cannot be used to cross-check the finer-grained town lists in this package [5] [6].
3. The 2020 county picture: what the numbers tell us and what they don’t
The 2020 data here point to Bristol County producing one of the largest raw Republican vote totals and the highest reported county percentage among the cited figures (42.5%), with Hampden and Worcester showing percentages near 39–40% and substantial raw vote counts as well [1] [2]. These counties combine sizeable populations with pockets of Republican-leaning towns, which explains why both raw totals and percent shares feature them prominently. The map-based presentation confirms that most Massachusetts counties remained Democratic in 2020 but shows deeper Republican performance in specific counties, reinforcing that the statewide Democratic dominance masks localized Republican strength [4]. What the provided sources do not deliver is a definitive statewide ordered list for every county by percentage for 2016 versus 2020, so the claim about “highest share” is supported for 2020 among the named counties but cannot be fully validated across all counties for 2016 using only the supplied documents.
4. Town-level texture and 2016 comparisons: local reporting fills gaps but with limits
Local reporting from November 2024 documents town-level outcomes where Trump’s 2024 support was strongest — for instance, Acushnet at 72% and a cluster of small towns where Trump hit 60% or more — and asserts that the geography of strength in 2024 resembles that of 2020, with some flips and margin changes [3]. This municipal granularity gives useful context: Republican strongholds are concentrated in certain towns across Plymouth, Bristol, Worcester, and Hampden counties, which explains why these counties register among the highest county-level Republican percentages. However, the 2024 town lists cannot be used as a direct substitute for 2016 county data, and the package lacks accessible 2016 county-by-county breakdowns. Two promised town-level lists were blocked by location restrictions, diminishing the ability to cross-verify town-level continuity across 2016 and 2020 using only these materials [5] [6].
5. Bottom line and recommended next steps for a complete verification
Based on the provided material, Bristol, Hampden, and Worcester counties stand out as the highest-share counties for Trump in Massachusetts in 2020 by the cited metrics and totals [1] [2]. The package lacks a directly comparable 2016 county-by-county percentage dataset, so a definitive statement about “highest share in 2016” cannot be confirmed here without adding official 2016 returns from the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth or a PD43-style archive for 2016. To finalize the comparison, retrieve the official 2016 county percentages from a state-run results archive and cross-reference with the 2020 table cited above; that will permit a complete ranked comparison and show whether the same counties led Trump’s support in both cycles.