Politics of the Southern United States

{{Further|Southern United States#Geography}}

According to the United States Census Bureau, the following states are considered part of the South:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Other definitions vary. For example, Missouri is often considered a border or Midwestern state, although many Ozark Missourians claim Missouri as a Southern state.{{Cite news|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-states-are-in-the-south/|title=Which States Are in the South?|date=2014-04-30|work=FiveThirtyEight|access-date=2017-11-04|language=en-US}}

At the end of the Civil War, the South entered the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868 placed most of the Confederate states under military rule (except Tennessee), which required Union Army governors to approve appointed officials and candidates for election. They enfranchised African American citizens and required voters to recite an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, effectively discouraging still-rebellious individuals from voting, and led to Republican control of many state governments.{{cite web | title = History Engine: The Second Reconstruction Act is passed | publisher = University of Virginia | url = https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/1430}} This was interpreted as anarchy and upheaval by many residents.{{Cite web|url=https://www.neh.gov/news/reconstruction-vs-redemption|title=Reconstruction vs. Redemption|website=National Endowment for the Humanities|language=en|access-date=2017-11-09}} However, Democrats would regain power in most Southern states by the late 1870s. Later, this period came to be referred to as Redemption. From 1890–1908 states of the former Confederacy passed statutes and amendments to their state constitutions, that effectively disenfranchised African Americans from voting, as well as some poor whites. They did this through devices such as poll taxes and literacy tests.Michael Perman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CamlCytE1IgC&q=literacy+tests&pg=PR7 Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South] (2009)

In the 1890s the South split bitterly, with poor cotton farmers moving to the Populist movement. In coalition with the remaining Republicans, the Populists briefly controlled Alabama and North Carolina. The local elites, townspeople, and landowners fought back, regaining control of the Democratic party by 1898.

During the 20th century, civil rights of African Americans became a central issue. Before 1964, African American citizens in the South and elsewhere in the United States were treated as second class citizens with minimal political rights.

Few Southern Democrats rejected the 1948 Democratic political platform over President Harry's Truman's civil rights platform.{{cite journal|first=Harvard|last=Sitkoff|title=Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics|journal=Journal of Southern History|volume=37|date=November 1971|issue=4|pages=597–616|doi=10.2307/2206548|jstor=2206548}} They met at Birmingham, Alabama, and formed a political party named the "States' Rights" Democratic Party, more commonly known as the "Dixiecrats." Its main goal was to continue the policy of racial segregation and the Jim Crow laws that sustained it. South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, who had led the walkout, became the party's presidential nominee. Mississippi Governor Fielding L. Wright received the vice-presidential nomination. Thurmond had a moderate position in South Carolina politics, but with his allegiance with the Dixiecrats, he became the symbol of die-hard segregation.Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson, Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond (2005). The Dixiecrats had no chance of winning the election since they failed to qualify for the ballots of enough states. Their strategy was to win enough Southern states to deny Truman an electoral college victory and force the election into the House of Representatives, where they could then extract concessions from either Truman or his opponent Thomas Dewey on racial issues in exchange for their support. Even if Dewey won the election outright, the Dixiecrats hoped that their defection would show that the Democratic Party needed Southern support to win national elections, and that this fact would weaken the Civil Rights Movement among Northern and Western Democrats. However, the Dixiecrats were weakened when most Southern Democratic leaders (such as Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia and "Boss" E. H. Crump of Tennessee) refused to support the party.Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932–1968 (2001) In the November election, Thurmond carried the Deep South states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.{{Cite news|url=http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1751.html|title=Dixiecrats|access-date=2017-11-09}} Outside of these four states however, it was only listed as a third-party ticket. Thurmond would receive well over a million popular votes and 39 electoral votes.

{{Main|Civil Rights Movement}}

Between 1955 and 1968, a movement towards desegregation began to take place in the American South. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were highly influential in carrying out a strategy of non-violent protests and demonstrations. African American churches were prominent in organizing their congregations for leadership and protest. Protesters rallied against racial laws, at events such as the Montgomery bus boycott, the Selma to Montgomery marches, the Birmingham campaign, the Greensboro sit-in of 1960, and the March on Washington in 1963.{{Cite web|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-emergence-of-the-civil-rights-movement/|title=The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement {{!}} Boundless US History|website=courses.lumenlearning.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-09}}

Legal changes came in the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. It ended legal segregation. He also pushed through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote. This law has since been used to protect equal rights for all minorities as well as women.{{Cite news|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/johnson-signs-civil-rights-act|title=Johnson signs Civil Rights Act - Jul 02, 1964 - HISTORY.com|work=HISTORY.com|access-date=2017-11-09}}

For nearly a century after Reconstruction (1865–1877), the majority of the white South identified with the Democratic Party. Republicans during this time would only control parts of the mountains districts in southern Appalachia and competed for statewide office in the former border states. Before 1948, Southern Democrats believed that their stance on states' rights and appreciation of traditional southern values, was the defender of the southern way of life. Southern Democrats warned against designs on the part of northern liberals, Republicans (including Southern Republicans), and civil rights activists, whom they denounced as "outside agitators".{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

The adoption of the first civil rights plank by the 1948 convention and President Truman's Executive Order 9981, which provided for equal treatment and opportunity for African-American military service members, divided the Democratic party's northern and southern wings.Littlejohn, Jeffrey L., and Charles H. Ford. "Truman and Civil Rights." in Daniel S. Margolies, ed. A Companion to Harry S. Truman (2012) p 287. In 1952, the Democratic Party named John Sparkman, a moderate Senator from Alabama, as their vice presidential candidate with the hope of building party loyalty in the South.{{cite web|url=https://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/520727convention-dem-ra.html|title=Sparkman Chosen by Democrats as Running Mate for Stevenson; Senator Hails Party Solidarity|website=partners.nytimes.com|access-date=28 August 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1441|title=John J. Sparkman - Encyclopedia of Alabama|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=28 August 2017}} By the late 1950s, the national Democratic Party again began to embrace the Civil Rights Movement, and the old argument that Southern whites had to vote for Democrats to protect segregation grew weaker. Modernization had brought factories, national businesses and a more diverse culture to cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte and Houston. This attracted millions of U.S. migrants from outside the region, including many African Americans to Southern cities. They gave priority to modernization and economic growth, over preservation of the old economic ways.Byron E. Shafer, The End of Southern Exceptionalism: Class, Race, and Partisan Change in the Postwar South (2006) ch 6

After the Civil Rights act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed in Congress, only a small element resisted, led by Democratic governors Lester Maddox of Georgia, and especially George Wallace of Alabama. These populist governors appealed to a less-educated, working-class electorate, that favored the Democratic Party, but also supported segregation.{{Cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/lester-maddox-1915-2003|title=Lester Maddox (1915-2003)|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia|access-date=2017-11-09}} After the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that outlawed segregation in schools in 1954, integration caused enormous controversy in the white South. For this reason, compliance was very slow and was the subject of violent resistance in some areas.{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/school-segregation-and-integration/|title=School Segregation and Integration - Civil Rights History Project|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=2017-11-09|language=en}}

The Democratic Party no longer acted as the champion of segregation. Newly enfranchised African American voters began supporting Democratic candidates at the 80-90-percent levels, producing Democratic leaders such as Julian Bond and John Lewis of Georgia, and Barbara Jordan of Texas.{{cite journal|author=Lawson, Steven F.|title=Freedom then, freedom now: The historiography of the civil rights movement|journal=American Historical Review|date=1991|volume=96|issue=2|pages=456–471|doi=10.2307/2163219|jstor=2163219}}

Many white southerners switched to the Republican Party during the 1960s, for a variety of reasons. The majority of white southerners shared conservative positions on taxes, moral values, and national security. The Democratic Party had increasingly liberal positions rejected by these voters. In addition, the younger generations, who were politically conservative but wealthier and less attached to the Democratic Party, replaced the older generations who remained loyal to the party. The shift to the Republican Party took place slowly and gradually over almost a century.

By the 1990s Republicans were starting to win elections at the statewide and local level throughout the South, even though Democrats retained majorities in several state legislatures through the 2000s and 2010s.{{cite web |last1=Trende |first1=Sean |title=Misunderstanding the Southern Realignment |url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/09/09/misunderstanding_the_southern_realignment_107084.html |date=September 9, 2010 |publisher=RealClearPolitics |access-date=January 15, 2017}}{{cite web |last1=Hamby |first1=Peter |title=The plight of the Southern Democrat |url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/03/politics/southern-democrats/ |date=December 9, 2014 |publisher=CNN |access-date=January 15, 2017}} By 2014, the region was heavily Republican at the local, state and national level.{{cite news |last1=Cohn |first1=Nate |title=Demise of the Southern Democrat Is Now Nearly Complete |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/upshot/demise-of-the-southern-democrat-is-now-nearly-compete.html?_r=1 |date=December 4, 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 15, 2017}} A key element in the change was the transformation of evangelical white Protestants in the south from largely nonpolitical to heavily Republican. Pew pollsters reported, "In the late 1980s, white evangelicals in the South were still mostly wedded to the Democratic Party while evangelicals outside the South were more aligned with the GOP. But over the course of the next decade or so, the GOP made gains among white Southerners generally and evangelicals in particular, virtually eliminating this regional disparity."{{cite web|url=http://www.people-press.org/2004/12/06/religion-and-the-presidential-vote/ |title=Religion and the Presidential Vote | Pew Research Center |website=People-press.org |date=6 December 2004 |access-date=2016-03-09}} Exit polls in the 2004 presidential election showed that Republican George W. Bush led Democrat John Kerry by 70–30% among Southern whites, who comprised 71% of the voters there. By contrast, Kerry had a 90–9 lead among the 18% of African American Southern voters. One-third of the Southern voters said they were white evangelicals; they voted for Bush by 80–20.{{cite news |title=Exit Polls |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.3.html |date=2004-11-02|access-date=2006-11-18}}

After the 2016 elections, nearly every state legislature in the South was GOP-controlled.{{cite web |last1=Loftus |first1=Tom |title=GOP takes Ky House in historic shift |url=http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2016/11/08/control-kentucky-house-up-grabs/93344114/ |date=November 9, 2016 |website=courier-journal.com |access-date=November 9, 2016}} Republican nominee for President Donald Trump notably won Elliott County, KY, becoming the first Republican presidential nominee to ever win that county.{{cite web |last1=Simon |first1=Jeff |title=How Trump Ended Democrats' 144-Year Winning Streak in One County |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/elliott-county-kentucky-democratic-streak-broken-by-donald-trump/index.html |date=December 9, 2016 |publisher=CNN |access-date=January 15, 2017}} Following the 2019 elections, Democrats won control of Virginia's House of Delegates and State Senate, thus giving them trifecta over the state government for the first time since the 1990s.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Joel |title=Virginia becomes Democratic trifecta as legislators are sworn in – Ballotpedia News |date=9 January 2020 |url=https://news.ballotpedia.org/2020/01/09/virginia-becomes-democratic-trifecta-as-legislators-are-sworn-in/ |access-date=2023-02-01 |language=en-US}} However, in 2021, Virginians would elect Glenn Youngkin as Governor and Republicans would retake control of the House of Delegates with a 52–48 majority.{{Cite web |date=2021-11-03 |title=Republican Glenn Youngkin wins election for governor in Virginia |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republican-glenn-youngkin-wins-election-for-governor-in-virginia |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us}} During the early 2020s, Georgia began to see itself become electorally competitive for Democrats again as Joe Biden won the state in 2020 election. Furthermore, Georgia would elect Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as their Senators in concurrent regularly scheduled and special elections, respectively.{{Cite magazine |last=Stuart |first=Tessa |date=2021-01-06 |title=Warnock Makes History and Democrats Gain Senate Majority |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-runoff-results-1109665/ |access-date=2023-02-01 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} Warnock would be elected to a full term in 2022 even as Republicans swept all statewide races and retained control of the state legislature.{{Cite web |title=Georgia Election Results 2022: Live Map {{!}} Midterm Races by County & District |url=https://www.politico.com/2022-election/results/georgia/ |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=www.politico.com |language=en}}

Research studies in American political affiliations demonstrate that an "uneducated"(lack of post-secondary school) white populace tends to vote Republican.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Bradley |date=2018-03-20 |title=1. Trends in party affiliation among demographic groups |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/ |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy |language=en-US}} Looking at the racial composition through the 2022 census{{Cite web |publisher=United States Census Bureau |title=The Chance That Two People Chosen at Random Are of Different Race or Ethnicity Groups Has Increased Since 2010 |url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=Census.gov}} demonstrates that the most prevalent race in the south are whites. Using these pieces of information, the tendency for the south to vote Republican could be further be explained as a lack of education in this region of the United States, as there are several majority-white states outside of the Deep South that tend to vote Democratic, but also many uneducated Southern blacks who vote Democrat as well, most likely due to the historical lack of state funding and educational focus in predominantly black schools and counties. (Red states and blue states).

{{Further|Same-sex marriage in the United States|LGBT rights in the United States}}

In September 2004, Louisiana became the first state to adopt a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in the South. This was followed by Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Oklahoma in November 2004; Texas in 2005; Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia in 2006; Florida in 2008; and finally North Carolina in 2012. North Carolina became the 30th state to adopt a state constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.{{Cite news|url=https://jayongeorge.com/2014/11/25/progression-of-same-sex-marriage-in-the-united-states-and-worldwide/|title=Progression of same-sex Marriage in the United States and Worldwide|date=2014-11-25|access-date=2017-11-09|language=en-US}} This ended with Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court case, which ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide on June 26, 2015.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/24/same-sex-marriage-timeline/29173703/|title=Timeline: Same-sex marriage through the years|work=USA TODAY|access-date=2017-11-09|language=en}} Virginia removed its laws banning same-sex marriage in 2020, but the constitutional amendment banning it is still in place, although not currently enforceable also due to the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act.{{Cite web |date=2022-12-16 |title=Respect for Marriage Act resonates in Virginia |url=https://www.vpm.org/news/2022-12-16/respect-for-marriage-act-resonates-in-virginia |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=VPM |language=en}} Republican-majority legislatures in Florida, Tennessee and Texas pushed for increased restrictions on transgender rights and gender-nonconforming expression in the 2020s.

While the general trend in the South has shown an increasing dominance of the Republican party since the 1960s, Southern politics in the 21st century are still contentious and competitive.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2010/11/11/the-long-goodbye|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2018-11-10|title=The Long Goodbye}} States such as Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina are swing states. Georgia has a Republican governor and 2 Democratic U.S. Senators, Virginia has a Republican governor and 2 Democratic U.S. Senators, and North Carolina has a Democratic Governor and 2 Republican U.S. Senators. Most Southern state legislatures, however, have been governed with Republican supermajorities in both houses at least once since 2000.

All the former Confederate Southern states supported Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary except Texas (won by native son Ted Cruz). Trump won every former Confederate State except Virginia.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/02/28/donald-trump-super-tuesday-south/81069984/|title=Why the South likes Donald Trump|work=USA TODAY|access-date=2017-11-09|language=en}}

Most Southern states, since the earlier 20th century, adopted absolute majority requirements in Democratic "white primary" elections for state and local offices, largely to undermine challengers from among both moderates as well as those further to the right, such as members of the Ku Klux Klan. Some states, like Georgia and Mississippi, also adopted tighter thresholds, with Georgia adopting a County unit system for their Democratic primary and Mississippi adopting a requirement that general election candidates win with a majority of state house districts. Several court cases throughout the 20th and even the 21st centuries have challenged these laws. There have also been several changes to the laws, from Louisiana's adoption of the Nonpartisan blanket primary (in the form of the Louisiana primary) to Florida's abolition of the 50% requirement in primary and general elections. However, Georgia (from 1964 to 1994 and since 2005) and Mississippi (since 2020) remain the two states which require absolute majorities in both primaries and general elections.{{cite web |url=https://archive.fairvote.org/?page=2293 |title=States using runoffs for statewide or federal office |author= |date= |website=FairVote |publisher= |access-date= 7 August 2024|quote=}}

• Elections in the Southern United States
• Bible Belt
• Politics of the United States
• Blue Dog Democrats
• Boll weevil (politics)
• Conservative Democrat
• Southern Democrat
• Deep South
• Upland South
• History of the Southern United States
• History of the United States Republican Party
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• Political culture of the United States
• Southern Agrarians
• Southernization
• Southern strategy

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11282.html Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell & Maya Sen. 2018. Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics. Princeton University Press.]
• Bartley, Numan V. The New South, 1945-1980 (1995), broad survey
• [https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11340.html David A. Bateman, Ira Katznelson & John S. Lapinski. 2018. Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy after Reconstruction. Princeton University Press.]
• Billington, Monroe Lee. The Political South in the 20th Century (Scribner, 1975). {{ISBN|0-684-13983-9}}.
• Black, Earl, and Merle Black. Politics and Society in the South (1989) [https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Society-South-Earl-Black/dp/0674689593/ excerpt and text search]
• Bullock III, Charles S. and Mark J. Rozell, eds. The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics (2007) state-by-state coverage [https://www.amazon.com/The-New-Politics-Old-South/dp/0742570215/ excerpt and text search]
• Cunningham, Sean P. [https://books.google.com/books?id=z6E5cT-7tWsC&q=%22Cowboy+Conservatism%3A+Texas+and+the+Rise+of+the+Modern+Right%22 Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right]. (2010).
• Grantham. Dewey. The Democratic South (1965)
• Guillory, Ferrel, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=_iLyBquVRrEC&q=%22The+South+in+Red+and+Purple%3A+Southernized+Republicans%2C+Diverse+Democrats%22 The South in Red and Purple: Southernized Republicans, Diverse Democrats]," Southern Cultures, 18 (Fall 2012), 6–24.
• Kazin, Michael. What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party (2022)[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374200238/ excerpt]
• Key, V. O. and Alexander Heard. Southern Politics in State and Nation (1949), a famous classic
• Perman, Michael. Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South (2009)
• Shafer, Byron E., and Richard Johnston. The End of Southern Exceptionalism: Class, Race, and Partisan Change in the Postwar South (2009) [https://www.amazon.com/End-Southern-Exceptionalism-Partisan-Postwar/dp/0674032497/ excerpt and text search]
• Steed, Robert P. and Laurence W. Moreland, eds. Writing Southern Politics: Contemporary Interpretations and Future Directions (2006); historiography & scholarly essays [https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Southern-Politics-Contemporary-Interpretations/dp/0813123828/ excerpts & text search]
• Tindall, George Brown. The Emergence of the New South, 1913-1945 (1967), influential survey
• Twyman, Robert W. and David C. Roller, ed. Encyclopedia of Southern History (LSU Press, 1979) {{ISBN|0-8071-0575-9}}.
• Woodard, J. David. The New Southern Politics (2006) 445pp
• Woodward, C. Vann. The Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (1951), a famous classic

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