Appalachia is a region of the United States that has long been distinct from the standard definition of the North and South with which it overlaps, both culturally and politically. Central Appalachia has long been a bastion of the Democratic Party, but has moved rapidly towards Republicans in recent elections. Southern Appalachia has a mix of areas that have been Republican for many decades and some that have become Republican strongholds more recently.
In this diary, I take a look at how the political landscape would be different if the Appalachian regions of several states in the eastern US were to form one large state comprising Central and Southern Appalachia. This part will focus on the statewide political effects state by state, including how various elections would have played out, while the next part will take a look at how redistricting could play out in each state given the resulting statewide changes using Dave's Redistricting App. I have included several maps and graphs to keep this long diary organized.
The point of departure from actual events is election day 2010. All races and all candidates are the same, regardless of whether the candidate still lives in the state just for simplicity, however the results from counties that form Appalachia have been removed to see what would happen to those states without them. All congressional races and state legislative races went the same way simply to make this diary more feasible. For legislative districts that cross the new state lines, I assigned the district to the state the majority of the district’s constituents are in. I used the remaining legislative partisan breakdown to determine the partisan control of the new states’ legislatures, although for Appalachia itself there are vast disparities in district population sizes.