I tested 21 consumer preferences, retail patterns and demographic measures against county- and state-level returns from 2024, combining relative search interest from Google Trends with the election results. Nineteen of the 21 were statistically significant. Taken together, they describe a rural-urban split that is not just about who governs but about how people live, eat and shop. That distinction matters for anyone who cares about rural communities because it shapes how campaigns court them and which businesses decide to invest in them.

The food signals were the strongest. The single best predictor in the whole study was a state’s relative search interest in tofu versus pork rinds, which by itself explained 72% of the variation, or the difference, in the vote. Searches for gravy versus pesto came next, then Velveeta versus brie, each explaining roughly two thirds.

The pattern was consistent and, frankly, not surprising to anyone who has lived in a small town: shelf-stable and homemade foods such as Velveeta, Spam, Miracle Whip, biscuits and gravy, and no-bean chili tracked rural, Republican-leaning places. Refrigerated and imported foods such as brie, pesto, prosciutto and avocado toast tracked dense, Democratic-leaning ones. For the sake of this analysis, rural is defined as counties outside of the Office and Management and Budget’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas.