Please Explain How Republicans Gained and Lost with the Same Voters

I am in upstate NY, there are 62 counties. Cuomo won, I think, only 13 of them. Molinaro won the other 49. I have a limited understanding of how state elections work, I grew up in the UK and to my credit, I know more about this country, it's government and it's electoral process than the people around me. But....I don't understand how 13 counties in a state get to chose the governor. I understand NY is a 'democrat state' but it's not! If you look at how we vote, the city votes blue, a few counties upstate vote blue (Albany, Schenectady, Utica). The rest vote red.

Everyone I know was entirely polarized, if they went blue they went all the way, red all the way. OP is right, something is off.

As I said, the real divide in this country is city versus rural areas.

I am from the South which you think of as conservative. But I’ve met upstate, farm country New Yorkers far more conservative than most of the people who live in my fairly large southern city.

GLP is in denial of this. I for one, a GLP, am not. I am tired of saving face. Time to accept reality.

No you aren’t the only one. That was my first question.

Good answers!