 Its Republican sympathies are rooted in the fact that, relative to population, Clinton County provided more soldiers for the Union Army than any free state, and saw a proportion of its population volunteer for Union service only exceeded by the equally Republican Owsley County.The last Democrat to carry Clinton County was Horatio Seymour in 1868 – when the state was largely controlled by former Confederates – and since at least 1896 no Democrat has reached thirty percent of the county's vote.Nor has any Republican in this time span – even William Howard Taft during the divided 1912 election – fallen short of sixty percent.