I don’t know if a lot of people realize this, but if you cut out Baltimore county, Montgomery county, and PG county, Maryland is a red state. The Eastern shore of Maryland also bears little resemblance to the Balt-DC beltway mindset and if there were any chance of a Western Maryland state, Eastern Maryland wouldn’t be far behind. It would be funny to see Martin O’malley run for president in 2016 against that backdrop.
I think that is true about most states...cut out the major metro areas (and possibly the university towns) and what you are left with are solid common sense conservatives.