The real tragedy of my home state is that western New York is conservative once you get out of the Buffalo city limits.
Lots of gun-owning patriots in the Erie County suburbs and on into the rural counties.
I recall upstate NY- Plattsburgh, Malone, Peru was mostly Republicans in the early 50’s. I saw “I Like Ike” pinned on most people then.
Just like with CA..its Los Angeles County and San Francisco that makes CA a commie state..take LA and San Fran out of the mix and its pretty Conservative..but LA County has the largest illegal alien population and of course they all vote Dem