Why Indiana is so conservative ?

[nclib]

Indiana is so conservative for one simple reason:

It's the south, without the African-Americans.

Admittedly the northern lake area counties are part of the North and thus make Indiana a little closer to the center than the deep south (Carolinas, Georgia minus Atlanta, ala. , miss. , etc. ) if they all of a sudden lost all their African Americans.

Ohio and Illinois is much the same but they have far larger areas where the white folk are northern white folk, rather than southern white folk. Sorry if that seems offensive, but there really isn't a better way to put it, each minority type varies somewhat by region but caucasians vary wildly by region, some whites are new england liberals, and some are bible belt conservatives and the midwest is where they mix .

My theory on the Klan being so strong in Indiana is that they found it to be a haven of like minded people without too many of the people they hated (er ... still hate) being around.

This sounds about right. There certainly are southern whites who live in the North, and visa versa. The suburbs of Chicago fit in with the North, but most of the state fits in with the South.

What I find interesting is why is the Fort Wayne area so conservative. I've never been there, but I didn't think it was at all southern.

I don't think Ill. (w/o Chicago) and Ind. are comparable politically. Gore would have still won Illinois without Chicago.

[nclib]

There were a lot of very interesting replies : I really learned a lot from this thread.
I'd like to thank siege40, muon2, kghadial, gustaf and staterights for their input. I'm impressed.

To summarize, there are two big explanations :
Indiana = Illinois - Chicago
Indiana is more Southern than the other Northern states

They're good explanations and they work well together.
Although, I'm not 100 % satisfied.
The border states like Kentucky and Missouri are more Southern than Indiana. They voted more "progressive" in recent elections (more Gore, less Bush, less Dole, more Dukakis, more Mondale, less Reagan,...)
Actually, the margin between the republican candidate and the democratic candidate has been higher for Indiana since 1912 !
If you look at the demographics, the black vote and the big cities are not significantly different.
So........................... Why ?

Well...you have to keep in mind though that the Dems used to have the South, so being more Southern worked for the Dems for a long time. Unless I'm mistaken the difference between Indiana and Kentucky wasn't very big last election?

No, they were very close - 56.65% IN and 56.5% KY for Bush.  I think KY is less 'Populist' than people think.  For example I think I would've won it in the Forum Four Way.  But IN is one of the main centers of the Conservative Party.

You wish. Who won KY in the four way, I don't remember?

That Populist Al.

Ouch.

I think KY would be a bit of a swing state though, it did vote for Clinton once.

Twice actually.

[nclib]

For income etc. try: http://nationalatlas.gov
For the "cornbelt" look at one of the national county maps on the Atlas (Western Ohio/Eastern Indiana... it's very easy to spot. Lots of dark blue)

Do you know what congressional districts that corresponds with?

[nclib]

It's got it's own Congressional District.

Kentucky is poorer than Indiania, BTW

Where can I find a map on the web with states ranked by poverty (or by median income) ?
Do Poorer states vote always more democratic ?

Here's a map with higher median income states in red and lower median income states in blue. It looks like higher income states are more likely to vote Democratic.

[nclib]

Actually for median income, wouldn't the very rich outliers not matter (other than counting as above average) ?

[nclib]

Alaskans probably get isolation pay as they do in Northern Canada. It's quite a lot from what I understand. Also most jobs in Alaska are mineral/ore related and usually pay very well.

As for Indiana, it's conservative simply because it's rural. Gary is heavily democratic, but it's population is very small. Indianapolis is heavily outvoted by it's suburbs.

Some states are more rural than Indiana AND less conservative. It's a bit too simple

This is an interesting point. Indiana's population density is twice the national average and is more dense and less conservative (at least by presidential standards) than about 20 states, including several midwestern states (Minn., Iowa, Wisc., Missouri...).