Expanding broadband would benefit red America more than blue

The national map of broadband need published by the White House offers an extra layer of information beyond its detailed look at internet access in the United States. Those areas that are in greatest need of broadband are displayed in red, accidentally elevating another quality most share: they largely voted for Donald Trump in 2020. If we compare the density of households without any type of computer, including smartphones, or broadband access to how the country voted in 2020, we see that Trump-voting counties are overrepresented in both groups. There are more households in rural areas that voted for Trump than households in big cities that voted for Biden that have no broadband access, that despite the fact that the former group represents only 13 percent of all households and the latter nearly 30 percent. Thus, it is both a geographic divide and an economic divide. Biden’s team is certainly hoping that congressional Republicans will recognize that it is also, by extension, a political divide.

[Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire.]