Some GOP counties voted for Measure 101

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – It wasn’t only Democratic-leaning counties in Oregon that voted to impose a tax on hospitals and health insurers to pay for Medicaid for low-income residents – several counties that voted for Donald Trump also helped propel the ballot measure to a resounding “yes” vote.

As president, Trump endorsed Republican bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid. Oregon did the opposite on Tuesday when it expanded funding of Medicaid, making up for a drop in the federal government’s share and covering more children.

Every Democratic-leaning county in Oregon said “yes” to Measure 101. But so did eight counties that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, according to data from the secretary of state’s office.

Among those counties are Tillamook and Columbia in the northwest corner of Oregon, which are called “pivot counties” because they voted for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and then went for Trump.