Hate to burst your bubble -- knew you would say that but where I live is like any small town Oklahoma only bigger. You are absolutely naive in what you believe small town America is all about.
The town I was referencing to begin with that had the contest -- 5400 people live in that town. If that is not small town America, I don't know what is.
Quite frankly, I've seen very few college towns that are representative of red state America.