Southerners used to vote Democratic in statewide and local elections for a century. The Republican Party was associated with the defeat of the South in the Civil War and then with Reconstruction. But the Civil Rights Era changed Southern loyalties to the Democrats first in presidential elections and then at the state and local levels. The last Southern state not to go completely GOP remains Arkansas.
Thanks for this explanation. It makes good sense to me and confirms some of my own conclusions. I think I fixed a typo in your post, correct?
There has been a determined effort by liberal academia and the media to equate the shift in the South to Republican represention to some kind of hidden racist message in conservative ideology. I first started hearing this twisted logic at college back in the 70's. In reality it is the absence of racism, in conservatism, that appeals to the more intelligent and moral citizens of our land whether dwelling in the North or the South and whether White or Black (or other).