ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the long-term national implications of Republican success in southern US House contests. It reviews the southern Republican advancement in electoral politics that is juxtaposed against the pattern of GOP performance in the North. The emergence of a viable Republican Party in Dixie was instrumental in bringing about a national GOP congressional majority. Whether the component of partisan polarization is at the elite or mass level, the South has played a fundamental role in this process. Before the 1970s, southern Democrats occupied the centre of the ideological distribution in the House of Representatives. After the 1994, the shedding of northern GOP House seats and the persistence of southern Republican strength established a decade-long period of hyper-competitive national elections that maintained a razor thin Republican House majority. After the 2004 elections, southern Republicans constituted 35 percent of the Republican House majority. Then, after the 2008 elections southern Republicans were 40 percent of the GOP's significantly reduced minority House delegation.
