"Southwestern Virginia (Roanoke etc) "
Actually, southwestern Virginia (the Ninth District) is represented by a Democrat, Rick Boucher. I agree that it's a pretty conservative area so I'm not quite sure how a Democrat keeps getting elected down there. From what little I know about him, he's conservative for a Rat, and is one of the leading Congresscritters on protecting the rights of users of "digital property" against the big cartels like the RIAA, MPAA, etc--he's great on privacy and fair use issues. But he's still a Rat.
}:-)4
Old southern yellow dogs.
and some us (poor) versus them (rich) attitudes from an abundance of blue collar
yet very socially conservative
Bart Gordon's gerrymandered district in Middle Tenn is like that