What Drives a Paler Shade of “Red” in Mississippi State?

Abstract

Over the years, as a result of depopulation, the population in Mississippi State has fallen by almost half. Moreover, traditionally Mississippi has been considered one of the “deep” southern states (Key, 1949). They are very conservative in terms of political position, and they have largely supported “Red” or the Republican Party, for the last several decades. However, the conservatism of the south is now challenged by the Democratic Party, and trends have been changing gradually in the south, including Mississippi State in recent history. In this paper, I investigate what drives the paler shade of “Red” in the southern states. In particular, I examine some characteristics of political position in Mississippi, one of the most strongly conservative states in the United States, identifying certain relationships between political preferences and demographic, economic and social factors.

Keywords: Southern Politics, Political change, Demographic factors in politics