It is hard to explain the cultural attachment to the RAT party in the rural South until you have lived there. There is something ingrained and inertial about being a Rat because pappy and grandpappy were rats. It takes the gradual realization that the party has left you or you can no longer ignore or stomach certain things before people change their party label to relfect their basic conservative philosophy.
Ten-plus years ago, after leaving the Midwest, I worked for an elected official in the rural South. This man was one of the most conservative people that I have met, yet he was still a Democrat.
Some of them NEVER figure it out!!