[evandev]

Even in Vermont, a lot of the rural area is conservative. Consider that ~1/3 of the population lives in the Burlington Metro area, add in a bunch of other small college towns that are more liberal and you can see why Vermont votes more liberal. Indeed the rural parts are probably more liberal than other parts of the country, but you'll still see quite a few trump signs and places the vote strictly Republican/More Conservative. Even our Governor is Republican (although rather left for a republican). Take a look at how towns voted in the last Presidential Election: https://electionarchive.vermont.gov/elections/view/82048/

[ghaff]

Although only one county in the state, Essex, went for Trump--which is in the extreme northeast of the state and, unsurprisingly, is the poorest county in the state.

[krn]

I guess the basic algorithm for finding the most rural progressive places in the US would then require selecting the most rural liberal counties[1] that are also in liberal-led states.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/20...