observations about the south

[freepcrusher]

It has often been said that the south has accounted for the most population growth in the U.S. But if you look more carefully not all of the south has gained population.

The following states:
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Alabama
Tennessee 
Kentucky
West Virginia

all had 68 congressional districts between them in 1910. Now they only have 44

It seems the south can be divided into two areas: the agricultural south, which is the states listed above and the coastal south: which I define as Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Those states had 50 congressional districts in 1910. Now they have 81 districts. Although the democrats here are still more conservative than the national party, it seems the dems in these states are much closer to the national party than the ones in the agricultural south.

Texas is also part of the south per the census bureau but I lump them more in with the west in terms of population growth, especially since it shares a border with Mexico and latin american immigrants are the main reason for the population growth.

So really if you look at a map of the U.S. to see changes in EVs since 1910 you see kind of a triangle formation which is all the states that have lost districts and two clusters of population growth: the south coast and an area stretching from Texas to Washington. Indeed, the only western state to have lost a district in the past 80 years is Montana in 1992.

This leads me to two questions:
1. What caused the states like AR, MS, AL etc to lack the population growth of other southern states like FL, GA, NC etc?

2. Is the west more important electorally for the democrats than the south?
In 1910 the south had 136 districts and now they have 161. In the west there were about 33 districts in 1910 and now that number has tripled. It seems that the west is gaining districts faster than the south and that the west. It also seems that the west has more voters who are natural democrat voters than the south. Issues like civil liberties tend tend to resonate with the voters in the west while in the south it often hurts the democrats to be in favor of civil liberties.

[Miles]

2. Is the west more important electorally for the democrats than the south?

Yes, astronomically. Of those states you listed, Democrats should bother with any of them at the Presidential level.

[timothyinMD]

Maryland and Delaware shouldn't be considered south