In my post #15, I wasn’t talking about counties, but towns and smaller locales. I have friends who live in all the places mentioned. They are very happy there. These are great towns with beautiful outdoors and land might be affordable in some outlying areas. You can look up voting at the precinct level and see what the mix is. Don’t look at the county level. You need to look at the precinct level.
Well that little town of 1000 had about 600 at its Women’s March on Jan 21, so yeah a local liberal hotspot given its location in a rural area far, far from any cities. Well actually I think of the towns farther into the mountains as being more liberal though Twisp is more ‘hippy’. Twisp used to be a staid town, but it changed the last 20-30 years. Obviously there is still a huge conservative element as this is a rural area and there is a large resource-based economy (the liberal-element is recent aka last 30yrs change). If you are conservative, you would find many friends here too though I would caution you that the local politics and many of your neighbors will be more liberal than you would expect.
Anyhow the area has been undergoing ‘outdoor-driven liberalization’ since oh mid-1990s? Kind of started in 1970s, but I’ve noticed it really picking up in the mid 1990s. ‘outdoor-driven liberalization’ = people moving in for the outdoor activities then tourist industry develops based on this. In the case of Methow Valley, this is for the cross-country skiing as one of the largest groomed areas in the US is there and they have a huge junior ski team, etc, etc. Leavenworth has the same thing going on and even longer.
You will find areas like this all over the west. I’m familiar with those in Utah also, because many friends are from there. Look at voting patterns at the precinct level and google the local newspapers and read a few issues and letters to the editor.