As one of only 4 states to vote Democratic at least twice in the 1980s (MN, HI, and RI being the others) I'd say yes. Remember though that the complete switch takes decades, in fact, a lot of southern states (particularly Lousiana) still haven't changed that much at the local level. Despite the poll mentioned in another thread, Byrd has at least one more re-election and Rockefeller doesn't seem to be in too much trouble either. That's the problem with sudden changes in voting patterns, there's no big candidates for the emerging majority party.
at least until the big-name figures in question decide to switch parties the way Strom Thurmond, Phil Gram, and Richard Shelby (among the most prominent names i can remember off the top of my head) have done.
that said, i am not overly familiar with West Virginia politics, so i do not know any major political figures who seem the most likely to switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
None of this will happen until the WV GOP Party becomes anything more than the doormat that it presently is.
But the demographics in West Virginia are not very pretty for the Democrats at all for the future, as long as present political trends hold.
West Virginia has lost 200,000 in population since 1950s.
Right now the really strong Democrat-controlled areas (the Southern coal-mining areas of the state) continue to bleed population fairly rapidly and as long as social issues are in the fore, Republican inroads in the area will continue (though Democrats will dominate there for a long while in the future).
The only areas of the state that are growing in population any are the Charleston suburbs and the Panhandle part of the state. The Panhandle has always been the most historically Republican part of this very Democrat state also.
