21. Massachusetts
> Reddest county: Plymouth County

With Romney receiving 47.5% of the county’s votes, Plymouth is the Massachusetts county with the most votes cast for the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Much of the state votes Democrat, however, as all nine of the state’s representatives in the House are Democrats. With the exception of Republican Scott Brown’s brief stint as a senator following the death of Edward “Ted” Kennedy in 2009, both of Massachusetts’ Senate seats have historically been held by Democrats.

22. Michigan
> Reddest county: Ottawa County

Michigan has gone to a Democrat in every presidential election since 1992, including supporting President Obama in 2012 with 54% of the votes. In Ottawa County, however, 66.7% of the votes were for Republican candidate Romney, the highest share of any county in Michigan. Unlike predominantly Republican counties in most states, more than 30% of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, a slightly higher educational attainment rate than the national rate.

23. Minnesota
> Reddest county: Sherburne County

Romney won 60.1% of the 2012 votes cast in Sherburne County. Like many heavily Republican parts of the nation, a very high 92.6% of residents of the county identify as white. Sherburne County is part of the state’s 6th district, previously held by Republican and Tea Party stalwart Rep. Michele Bachmann until her retirement in 2014. Republican Rep. Tom Emmer now holds the seat.

24. Mississippi
> Reddest county: Rankin County

Rankin County is represented in the House by Republican Gregg Harper. The senators from Mississippi, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, are also both Republicans. In 2012, Romney won 75.4% of the 2012 votes cast in Rankin County.

As is the case in a number of other Republican-leaning counties, Rank residents are less likely to live in poverty than Americans nationwide but also tend to be less educated. About 11.4% of county residents live in poverty, less than the national poverty rate of 15.6%. Of adults in the county, 28.7% have at least a bachelor’s degree, slightly smaller than than the 29.3% of American adults with such a degree.

25. Missouri
> Reddest county:

Romney won 75.8% of the 2012 votes cast in Mercer County, a higher share than in any Missouri county except for Osage and Barton counties. Unlike those counties, however, Mercer has been represented by Republican Rep. Sam Graves since 2001. As with other Republican-leaning counties, more than 90% of Mercer County residents identify predominantly as white, far higher than the 62.3% of Americans identifying as white.