what is the most naturally red state?

[freepcrusher]

In my opinion, its Kansas. Looking at election results, the state, along with many surrounding areas, seem to be the most politically unchanged in the past century. The state was largely settled by the base of the party which was old-stock American farmers/small business owners often of Methodist background. They often opposed slavery and fought the abolitionist cause during the civil war. But the state seemed to lack the demography that pushed many union states (the civil war type not the UAW) to the democrats during the 20th century. There was no massive immigration of southern and eastern Europeans and no migration of black Americans as it lacked a major city like New York or Chicago. While Vermont is similar to Kansas in this regard, I think what pushed VT into the dem column while Kansas remained republican was that Vermont remained a very secular state while KS didn't (and even Vermont has a large ethnic catholic population).

So the state essentially is too far north to have any dem heartstrings like OK, too far south to have any Scandinavian NPL/Farmer Labor/Progressive types (although James Weaver did carry the state as a populist in 1892) and too far west to have any machine/hack big city dems. Also, they being liberal enough to fight the union cause during the civil war and vote republican but not liberal enough to move to the democrats as NY or MA did as they still were xenophobic to wets, immigrants, and labor causes of the 20th century; you basically have a state that has voted pub in all but two elections since 1920 and not electing a dem senator since 1932.