South-Central Kentucky

[Miles]

Well, as far as as eastern Tennessee goes...

I read somewhere that people there generally weren't slaveholders, so they were never sympathetic to the Democratic party; as opposed to strongly Democratic western and middle Tennessee, where slavery was much  more common.
I guess the Republican party became entrenched in eastern Tennessee and now the state as a whole is trending that way.

[Miles]

Here's another slavery map:



In KY, it was most common up by Lexington and Louisville and in the west, extending out of Nashville.
I guess the eastern coal counties, like those in southern West Virginia, have always been Democratic anyway.

That kinda just leaves leaves the south-central KY...