Deep South - Politics

Politics

From 1880 to 1960 the Deep South overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party as a legacy of the rival Republican Party's record during Reconstruction. It was known as the "Solid South." With the Goldwater-Johnson election of 1964 a significant contingent of those same voters left the national Democratic Party while still voting for Democrats at the state and local level into the 1990s. Correspondingly, support for Republicans among Blacks eroded in the New Deal Era, even though few blacks could vote. The Deep South has voted Republican in presidential elections, except in the 1976 election when Georgia native Jimmy Carter received the Democratic nomination. Since the 1990s there has been a continued shift toward Republican candidates at the state and local levels. Today, only Louisiana has a Democratic US Senator, and only Georgia has more than one Democratic US Representative. Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, was elected Speaker of the House in 1995.

Presidential elections in which the region diverged noticeably from the Upper South occurred in 1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, and, to a lesser extent, in 1952, 1956 and 2008. Arkansan Mike Huckabee fared well in the Deep South in 2008 Republican primaries, losing only one state (South Carolina) while running (he had dropped out of the race before the primary in Mississippi).

Much of the conservative Republican strength is based on the region's high religiosity. Southern Baptists, as well as fundamentalist Biblical movements, are prevalent in the popularly termed Bible Belt. There is also a strong support for social conservatism, including demands for home schooling, prayer in public schools, and opposition to same-sex marriage.