This is a decent read so far (Claremont), but I didn't see anything about exit polls in it. I don't have time to read the entire thing tonight, but I searched those articles for "poll" and came up with nothing for exit polls showing young Republican voters. The Claremont article spells out a different story for why the South began switching - Such as transplants from other states who brought Republican-leaning voting patterns with them
(similar to what is happening with Colorado and Virginia right now), and the GOP attracting middle class suburbanites in the peripheral southern states. That means existing adult southern Democratic voters in those peripheral states
did switch, but not necessarily due to racist platitudes.
However, to be fair to your point, even without the data I'd say young voters in those states that were attracted to the GOP at a young age powered the Republican party's continued success in the region. Young adults in their 20s tend to have their dominant political views and affiliations "imprinted" and usually stay loyal for most of their life, barring any major events that break those bonds. Evidently, these same voters also voted Democratic at the local/state level for various reasons. Local politics differ from national politics and it can sometimes take a state a long, long time to move from one party to the next at the state level. Consider Virginia, who stopped voting Democratic for president in the 50s
(save for LBJ), yet they remained mostly Democratic in state/local politics up until the 90s - Though you could see the cracks forming in the 70s. Mississippi was strongly Democratic until the 90s, and had a Democratic legislature up until 2010. Basically the same thing for most southern states, to varying degrees.
The reason I say all that is because it begs the question of how you define "switch to Republicans" (or vice versa).
Anyway, thanks for the Claremont link! I'm going to finish it tomorrow.
