Jackson Purchase - Politics

Politics

Historically with an agricultural economy tied to cotton plantations and the use of enslaved labor before the Civil War, the Purchase was the most staunchly Democratic region in Kentucky. For well over a century, it provided such overwhelming margins for Democratic candidates that Kentucky Democrats routinely called it the "Gibraltar of Democracy". The most widely circulated newspaper and media outlet in the Purchase, The Paducah Sun, was once named the Paducah Sun-Democrat (see WPSD-TV).

During the Civil War, the Purchase was the area of strongest support for the Confederate cause. On May 29, 1861, a group of Southern sympathizers from Kentucky and Tennessee met at the Graves County Courthouse in Mayfield to discuss the possibility of aligning the Purchase with West Tennessee. Most records of the event were lost, possibly in an 1864 fire that destroyed the courthouse. In 1907, Fulton County judge Herbert Carr declared in a speech that the Mayfield Convention adopted a resolution for secession, and a historical marker in front of the courthouse also proclaims this as fact. However, the surviving records of the meeting, authored by a Union sympathizer, make no mention of this resolution, and historian Berry Craig opines that the convention believed the whole of Kentucky would eventually secede and make a resolution for the Purchase to break away unnecessary. Records do show that the convention adopted resolutions condemning President Lincoln for "waging a bloody and cruel war" against the South, urging Governor Beriah Magoffin to resist Union forces and praising him for refusing to answer Lincoln's call for soldiers, and condemning the provision of "Lincoln guns" to Union sympathizers in Kentucky. The convention also nominated Henry Burnett to represent Kentucky's First District in Congress. The Mayfield Convention was a precursor to the later Russellville Convention, which formed the provisional Confederate government of Kentucky.

In recent elections, the Purchase has voted for Republicans in national elections while giving higher percentages to the Democratic Party in state and local elections. This trend is similar to realignment among white conservatives in other parts of the South. As of 2004, however, the majority of the region's delegation in the Kentucky General Assembly has been elected both from the Republican Party and Democratic Party. For the first time in history, the region's two state senators are both Republicans.

The Purchase is within Kentucky's 1st congressional district. As of March 15, 2007, 74% of all Purchase voters are registered Democrats and 22% of Purchase voters are registered Republicans. In keeping with the South generally, Purchase Democrats are more conservative than many in the national party. (see also Blue Dog Democrats).