The Changing Politics of Race in the South and Its Impact on National Politics

The long era of racial segregation and black voter suppression coincided with the old “Solid South” of Democratic dominance of the region. Among African Americans who could vote, they were loyal to the GOP, the party of Lincoln. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the civil rights movement more generally moved Southern blacks to the Democratic Party. The emergence of African American voters’ rights and their realigning to the Democratic Party have had the most profound impact on the politics of the region of the past half century. Today, Southern African Americans vote at about the same rate as whites and in some recent presidential elections have exceeded white participation. As whites realigned to the GOP, African Americans became a key component of the Democratic Party dominance of the South, with substantial influence on legislative priorities.

The Changing Demographics of the South and Its Impact on National Politics

The South has grown more in the past fifty years than any other region, leading to major changes in its economy and the racial/ethnic, gender, generational, socioeconomic, and political composition of its electorate. In the fifty years since the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the South’s politics have become more polarized, with sharp differences by race, place of birth, age, education, income, and gender. Most of the changes occurred during a period of realignment, during which Republicans expanded their regional dominance. But continued in-migration, accompanied by economic diversification and racial/ethnic and generational shifts, is beginning to push the political pendulum in the opposite direction. This “redirection” is most noticeable in the region’s high growth states, particularly in their fast-growing metropolitan areas characterized by larger concentrations of young, minority (and more Democratic-leaning) voters. Overall, this chapter lends credibility to the “demographics is destiny” thesis.

New York Sybarite Conquers the South

Donald Trump, the thrice married and publicly philandering Manhattan resident who had recently been pro-choice and pro-gun control, won the Republican nomination and the presidency in 2016 in part through his very strong showing among Southern white voters. How he managed to do that is the story of this chapter. Trump appealed to Southern white racial resentment, as well as to the anti-immigration fervor particularly evident in the low growth “stagnant” Southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi. But what was really remarkable is how he won the GOP nomination by doing well in all regions. The Republican Party has become unified around a largely Southern conception of conservatism: deeply religious, pro-military, and less concerned with free trade. In the general election, by contrast, regional polarization intensified in 2016. In both elections, Trump’s path to victory required him to do well among Southern whites, which he ably did.

How the South Has Changed and Its Impact on National Politics

This chapter describes the changing landscape of Southern politics over the past half century and provides the framework for the rest of the volume. In so doing it showcases the crucial differences in the region between the high growth and the stagnant states, with the growth states exhibiting the strongest economies, higher incomes, and greater diversity of populations. Whereas the stagnant growth states exhibit much of the characteristics associated with the old South, the high growth states are pointing the way toward a vastly transformed new South, as described in the following chapters.

Conclusion

The concluding chapter summarizes key findings of the volume and points the way toward areas of future research and analysis of southern politics. It offers some projections about the future of the region, including its potentially key role in the 2020 elections. The discussion covers the many areas in which change is occurring, including changing demographics, changing partisanship, changing politics of race, and changing politics of religion, all leading up to a discussion of the changing politics of the Trump Era. In its final words, the chapter concludes that the direction of U.S. national politics and governing will continue to be driven substantially by what happens in the South.

The Changing Partisanship of the South and Its Impact on National Politics

For generations many assumed that Democratic hegemony in the South would last forever. Civil rights and the national Democratic Party’s move to the left reconfigured partisan competition in the South. By the 1970s, the South became a crucial battleground in the election of the president and Republican gains in the region started to trickle down to statewide elections and eventually to local offices. The realignment of the southern electorate looked complete by the 2000s with near GOP control of the region, but recent elections have shown some swing back to the Democrats in several Growth States.

The Rise of the Christian Right in the South and Its Impact on National Politics

The rise of the largely Evangelical-led Christian Right movement profoundly altered the Southern political landscape and eventually the national one as well. The “Solid South,” long a predominantly white Protestant and Democratic Party dominated region, has become largely Republican and anchored by white Protestants. As the South has become increasingly diverse and somewhat less distinctive, coalitions of minority groups, including religious minorities, are the backbone of the Democratic Party in the region. Since the 1980s, white Evangelicals have remained firmly committed to the GOP. What began in the South as a marginalized social movement focused on a narrow agenda eventually reconfigured the national party coalitions and played a major role on the election of Donald J. Trump as president.