Why Indiana is so conservative ?

[opebo]

Parts of Illinois, parts of Michigan, and much of Ohio are as conservative as Indiana.  Jumping over a state MO is mostly as conservative as Indiana, and neighboring Kentucky is even more conservative.  Indiana just happens to be of more or less one geographic type, undiluted by other regions or excess urban areas.  

In other words a great deal of the North is very conservative, its just swamped in states that contain too many big cities.

[opebo]

Do you think that in the future if the Democratic nominee was from Indianna or the VP, could they win it, assuming the political situation is the same or similar.

Siege40

No, definitely not with just the VP.  Maybe if Evan Bayh ran with Zell Miller as his VP.

[opebo]

There were a lot of very interesting replies : I really learned a lot from this thread.
I'd like to thank siege40, muon2, kghadial, gustaf and staterights for their input. I'm impressed.

To summarize, there are two big explanations :
Indiana = Illinois - Chicago
Indiana is more Southern than the other Northern states

They're good explanations and they work well together.
Although, I'm not 100 % satisfied.
The border states like Kentucky and Missouri are more Southern than Indiana. They voted more "progressive" in recent elections (more Gore, less Bush, less Dole, more Dukakis, more Mondale, less Reagan,...)
Actually, the margin between the republican candidate and the democratic candidate has been higher for Indiana since 1912 !
If you look at the demographics, the black vote and the big cities are not significantly different.
So........................... Why ?

Well...you have to keep in mind though that the Dems used to have the South, so being more Southern worked for the Dems for a long time. Unless I'm mistaken the difference between Indiana and Kentucky wasn't very big last election?

No, they were very close - 56.65% IN and 56.5% KY for Bush.  I think KY is less 'Populist' than people think.  For example I think I would've won it in the Forum Four Way.  But IN is one of the main centers of the Conservative Party.

[opebo]

There were a lot of very interesting replies : I really learned a lot from this thread.
I'd like to thank siege40, muon2, kghadial, gustaf and staterights for their input. I'm impressed.

To summarize, there are two big explanations :
Indiana = Illinois - Chicago
Indiana is more Southern than the other Northern states

They're good explanations and they work well together.
Although, I'm not 100 % satisfied.
The border states like Kentucky and Missouri are more Southern than Indiana. They voted more "progressive" in recent elections (more Gore, less Bush, less Dole, more Dukakis, more Mondale, less Reagan,...)
Actually, the margin between the republican candidate and the democratic candidate has been higher for Indiana since 1912 !
If you look at the demographics, the black vote and the big cities are not significantly different.
So........................... Why ?

Well...you have to keep in mind though that the Dems used to have the South, so being more Southern worked for the Dems for a long time. Unless I'm mistaken the difference between Indiana and Kentucky wasn't very big last election?

No, they were very close - 56.65% IN and 56.5% KY for Bush.  I think KY is less 'Populist' than people think.  For example I think I would've won it in the Forum Four Way.  But IN is one of the main centers of the Conservative Party.

You wish. Who won KY in the four way, I don't remember?

That Populist Al.

[opebo]

How is Alaska a high income state?

People there are paid a lot, the cost of living is extremely high.  Also something to do with the oil money perhaps?

[opebo]

I don't know much about Alaska, never been, but I can't imagine why the income would be so high. From what I understand that government pays people to live there.

Jobs pay a lot there to attract people - not that many people want to live in such a godforsaken place.