Determinants of a State’s Political Color

Abstract

This chapter asks how the typology of states, the social attributes, and the indexes of moral conservatism affect blue–purple–red, the “redness” of the states. States with lower HD are more likely to be red politically than states with higher HD. Moral conservatism and especially religion-based doctrinal conservatism are associated with the redness of a state. Moral conservatism mediates the effects of the social attributes on BPR: evangelical Christians → indexes of moral conservatism → residence in red states. Moral conservatism does not change the effects of the typology of states on BPR. The different state contexts influence relationships between the measures of moral conservatism and BPR: The associations between the voters’ scores on the four measures of moral conservatism and the redness score of their state of residence are strongest in the South. Moreover, the associations between the voters’ doctrinal conservatism and the redness score of their state is strongest in the states that have lower HD, in the Heartland and South—the Bible Belt. Moral conservatism contributes to the disconnection between the human developmental needs of a state and contemporary U.S. politics, as indicated by a state’s red political color.