Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining Appalachian Realignment, Ali Graham

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

The Appalachian region is a unique case within American politics, yet it has not been given much attention by political scientists. In the 1990s and 2000s, the area underwent a political realignment, shifting from a Democratic stronghold to a Republican one. I plan to examine proposed theories of realignment in the context of Appalachia to determine the root cause of this shift. I expect to find a relationship between the adoption of environmentalism as a Democratic principle and the change in Appalachian voting behavior because of the prominence of the coal industry in the region. I will use statistical analysis …