is there a southern element to some of the west?

[freepcrusher]

I remember reading somewhere that from the 30s-50s a lot of poor people from the south (particularly the peripheral south) started populating what would become "proto sunbelt cities" in the western states such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Denver.

As you would know the Military Industrial Complex really drove these metro areas and brought a lot of entry level white collar and high paying blue collar jobs became available. It was often thought that the companies tried to recruit these people because they knew they would be less likely to unionize.

Another thing I've wondered is if this explains the impact the religious right had in those areas.
Although it doesn't show up on maps, there was a definite fundamentalist christian bent to some of those areas. The parts of Orange County west of HWY 55 went through a "Great Awakening" of sorts in the 1950s and 1960s with lots of fundamentalist churches such as Bob Shuller's church and there was a "Christian AntiCommunist Crusade" around that same era.

Colorado Springs also has a large conservative christian presence even though it isn't in the south so I'm wondering if that area has had a large southern migration. The congressman who represented that area for several years, Hefley, was an okie IIRC.

Also, in some of the western working class areas of OC like GG, Anaheim, SA and BP; I think that if there was a large Okie population, it may also explain the schizophrenic political bent of the area in the 60s 70s and 80s where it was heavily democratic in registration and for local offices, electing democrats to congress such as Dick Hanna and Jerry Patterson, but often voted republican for president (although not as GOP as the nearby Dannemeyer and Badham districts).