The Sun Belt Right

[Kevin]

I actually agree with you,

In most of the South and Southwest most of the suburban areas outside of NOVA and parts of North Carolina's research triangle and heavily old/culturally northern areas of Miami are pretty conservative.

Two points I have to add though,

1. Aside from military spending and oil the South's suburbs have grown to become more diverse economically esp. since the late 1980's and throughout the 90's since they have added other industries like medical research, education, information technology, and logistics to their economic base. Part of this has been caused by businesses leaving urban more Democratic states in the Northeast and Pacific Coast(MA, CA, NY) for the less regulated and less taxed business environment found in places like TX, AZ, and GA.

2. Another misconception is that most of the "Tea Party" representatives in Congress come from less populated rural districts in Red States when actually most of their districts are overwhelmingly white, conservative, middle/upper middle class suburban areas throughout the South and parts of the Southwest. 

3. Also the Sunbelt is changing demographically-the GOP's future in many parts of the South and Southwest is far from guaranteed.