I’m in a blue state- Illinois. It’s not that far gone, YET. The problem is the big cities, in my case, Chicago, control what happens to the rest of us. Chicago politicians have the say-so as to what happens in Illinois.
GOP in this state is mostly RINOS. The cronyism is rampant.
Decades ago people in Virginia saw the growing blob in Northern Virginia and realized what would happen. Gradually it became so large that it dominated state politics and flipped Virginia (probably) permanently blue. NOVA is Virginia’s Chicago.