Longtime NE OK/SW MO/NW AR GOP Strongholds

[VPH]

Why has this region been so historically friendly to Republicans? Many claim (myself included) that there is a very strong element of Southern Culture to these areas, so why did they buck the trend and not vote like the South even in lopsided elections?

[VPH]

Combination of Tulsa oil and gas and Walmart?  If the trend goes back prior to the 1960's it has to be something deeper than this, though.

It appears to go all the way back into the 1910's

[TDAS04]

Southwest Missouri might have been a pro-Union stronghold from the Civil War, like East Tennessee.

[DINGO Joe]

Southwest Missouri might have been a pro-Union stronghold from the Civil War, like East Tennessee.

This.  Ditto NW Arkansas.  Few to no slaves.  Oklahoma was settled (quickly) by people most adjacent to the state with Tulsa and Bartellesville quickly becoming oil corporate towns.  Although many of the small town and rural communities around Tulsa were very Democratic thanks to Yellow Dogs and Indians.

[DINGO Joe]

Southwest Missouri might have been a pro-Union stronghold from the Civil War, like East Tennessee.

This.  Ditto NW Arkansas.  Few to no slaves.  Oklahoma was settled (quickly) by people most adjacent to the state with Tulsa and Bartellesville quickly becoming oil corporate towns.  Although many of the small town and rural communities around Tulsa were very Democratic thanks to Yellow Dogs and Indians.

Odd for Oklahoma Indians to support Democrats prior to FDR.  I mean, Andrew Jackson...

Maybe they voted Socialist (or not at all).  Oklahoma didn't have the vote until 1908 and had a very large Socialist vote in the early years.  I really don't know anything about early OK voting patterns.

[Ebsy]

Almost all the slaves in Missouri lived along the Missouri River or in the Bootheel, so Southwest Missouri did not naturally align with slaveholding Democrats.

[Sumner 1868]

Southwest Missouri might have been a pro-Union stronghold from the Civil War, like East Tennessee.

This.  Ditto NW Arkansas.  Few to no slaves.  Oklahoma was settled (quickly) by people most adjacent to the state with Tulsa and Bartellesville quickly becoming oil corporate towns.  Although many of the small town and rural communities around Tulsa were very Democratic thanks to Yellow Dogs and Indians.

Odd for Oklahoma Indians to support Democrats prior to FDR.  I mean, Andrew Jackson...

They couldn't vote until 1924.