GET ME REWRITE: Charles Herbster's best performance in the Nebraska GOP primary took place in Trumpy Sheridan County, where Democrats have been an endangered species since the 1940s

Herbster received 58% of the vote in a county where the current population of 5,127 is a 53% decrease from its 1930 peak of 10,793

Source:  Wikipedia (above and below)

Herbster didn't receive a plurality of the vote in any of Nebraska's 10 most populous counties.

New York Times

Original 4/30/2019 post, "Population loss in rural Nebraska: Sheridan County", starts here.

Source:  Wikipedia (Sheridan County, Rushville)

Rushville is the county seat of Sheridan County.

Population loss by degrees:  70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:

• 25,8% - Sheridan County
• 30.6% - Nebraska
• 30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

25.6% - Sheridan County

15.4% - Nebraska

15.6% - U.S.

The last time Sheridan County voted Democratic was 1936.  (Barry Goldwater won by 35.7 percentage points in 1964, and George Wallace received 8.2% of the vote in 1968.) 

Rushville Public Library

Photo credit:  Nebraska Library Commission

Related reading:
The great abandonment.  (The New Republic, 12/15/2016)

It wasn’t always so. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought more than a million people to the state—among them my ancestors, who farmed along the Platte River and opened general stores in Aurora, Murphy, and Giltner. But the act, which deeded 160 acres to anyone who would build a home and raise a crop, was no match for the drought of the 1890s and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. People fled in droves.

Related posts (down and up from northwest to southeast)
Sioux County/Harrison.  (4/29/2019)
Banner County/Harrisburg.  (4/29/2019)
Kimball County/Kimball.  (4/29/2019)
Morrill County/Bridgeport.  (4/30/2019)