The broadband funding will go 2:1 to Republicans

Senator Tuberville generated snickers and some jeers when he tweeted his excitement about the BEAD funding for Alabama. Even Twitter thought it necessary to add the context that Senator Tuberville voted against the Infrastructure Bill that is providing this funding. Despite all the GOP votes against the bill, Republicans do have reason to be excited: about 2/3rds of the Unserved and Underserved locations that are eligible for funding are likely GOP households.

There are 11.9 million Unserved and Underserved locations in the 50 states that are eligible for BEAD funding. Using the election results from the county that they’re part of, 64% of those locations would vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden.

I think this number probably underestimates how GOP-leaning the broadband areas are. Maricopa County, Arizona has the second most Unserved and Underserved locations in the country with 39,490. (Cochise County, Arizona has the most Unserved and Underserved locations in the country with 41,107. It voted 60-40 for Trump.) Maricopa County went for Joe Biden (barely), which adds net votes for Biden in this analysis. But if you look at the map, the Unserved and Underserved locations aren’t in Phoenix, they’re in the surrounding areas, which don’t generally vote for Democrats (aside from a couple areas of Tribal Lands).

This funding is a generational opportunity to bring broadband to the 10.5% of American families that still lack service. It may also be a rare opportunity for bipartisanship and cooperation as a Democratic administration works to implement a program targeted largely at areas that voted the other way.