After the Civil War Republicans from the victorious North so dominated and mistreated the South, pushing through some questionable Constitutional Amendments in the process, that for years after, in fact up until now, many Southerners said, "I would rather vote for a yeller dawg than vote for a Republican." Voting for a Republican was tantamount to forsaking their deepest held values as well as their heritage. Many in the rural South also suffered greatly during the depression and mistakenly give FDR credit for getting them out of it. Many still feel that way but most are now very old. They can't get over the past and come to grips with the fact that Democrats now stand for everything they hate.
Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Texas, is a very conservative Democrat and always will be I suspect, but other than the party he is on our side.