Along the Tennessee River, you have a lot of conservative whites who are/were loyal to the Dems because of the TVA. This is true in Northern Alabama as well as in Tennessee. Arkansas remains an very Dem state at every level except president.
Hmmm. Interesting. I've never lived in Tennessee before but that explanation sounds very convincing. In Arkansas the prevalence of Blue Dog/Conservative Democrats probably has something to do with the area's opposition to big business and their support for the rural economy that predominates in the region. But I don't know, since I was always just familiar with Logan County and its surroundings, which were Bush country.
