I was browsing the 1982 Almanac of American Politics and came across a fascinating chart detailing the control of state legislatures. We all know that the South used to be solidly Democratic for generations post-Appomattox, but did you have any idea it was this solid?
State Legislature Split in 1982, measured D-R
State Upper Lower Gov.
Alabama 35-0 105-4 D
Arkansas 34-1 93-7 D
Florida 27-13 81-39 D
Georgia 51-5 157-23 D
Louisiana 39-0 91-10 D
Mississippi 43-4 116-4 D
N. Carolina 40-10 96-24 D
Oklahoma 37-11 73-28 D
S. Carolina 41-5 107-17 D
Texas 24-7 58-39 D
Virginia 31-9 74-25 D
D T Nelson
15 January 2011 at 11:41 PM
Hey, what about Tennessee?
Patrick Ottenhoff
16 January 2011 at 1:31 PM
TN is an interesting case. Southern states that have fewer blacks than their Confederate brethren (Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas) always had a more robust two-party system. The mountain communities in Virginia and Tennessee especially were always more sympathetic to Lincoln’s Republicans — West Virginia was the extension of that sentiment. In fact, I’m not sure that the eastern division of Tennessee has ever once elected a Democrat to Congress, ever.
Alan
21 January 2011 at 3:46 AM
You might want to check on the figure for Texas’s lower house; those numbers add up to 97 and the Texas House has 150 members. Wikipedia says the composition in 1982 was 113 Democrats and 37 Republicans. And today, it’s a near-reversal, with 101 Republicans and 49 Democrats.
Also according to Wikipedia, Arkansas is the only state where Democrats currently have majorities in both chambers of their state legislature. In Louisiana and Mississippi, they control one chamber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_legislatures_in_the_United_States