I knew and worked with a young Preacher from Southern Illinois. This was at a Summer retreat in the Western Carolina Mountains.
I talked to him a bit about the area and became convinced that it was about as conservative as anyplace. Too bad it is controlled by the Chicago area.
As an aside, he had a young Sister-in-Law who may have been the prettiest girl I ever saw.
Politically.
Culturally and socially downstate Illinois is pretty much the other side of the coin. There are areas in the far south of Illinois that make it impossible to believe that they and Chicago come from the same planet, let alone state.
Illinois is making good progress in a lot of areas but it's damn near impossible to get away from Chitcago's influence on some of the stuff, although it does seem to be less pervasive in 2A matters since the CCW battle.
I think we're going to win eventually.