Fascinating. This is TN in reverse. We are also 3 states. Traditionally republican east, mixed middle, corrupt den of the Ford Family to the west.
BTW, speaking of republican east TN, a very wise FReeper taught me something I didn't know: Any mountainous region in the south will be mostly republican, going all the way back to the civil war. No plantations in the mountains. East TN did NOT want to secede, and almost broke away like WV did. Same for northern AL, GA. They used to have nicknames for the different sides. Johnny Reb. Billy Yank. Those in the mountains who wanted to stay in the union became known as "HillBillys".
Ah, the wealth of knowledge on FR!
Now, back to the slugfest!
"Fascinating. This is TN in reverse. We are also 3 states. Traditionally republican east"
The mountain folk were Republican when Abraham Lincoln was president, and never stopped being Republican. That's true of any state along the Appalachian mountains, from Pennsylvania on down, with the possible exception of unionized coal miners in KY and WV. But, that was pure economics, and the only instance where you'd ever get me to admit a union did anything but harm. They were still pretty conservative otherwise, for the most part.