Virginia is the only objectively correct answer.
Like Florida, Virginia is no longer a Southern State. It is becoming Michigan without the industrial rot. It is a disaster for the GOP because of its cosmopolitanism and large African-American population.
For "no longer being Southern" (it was the only former-Confederate state that did not vote for Carter in 1976) it is more like Michigan than any Southern state. I disqualify Virginia even though it is otherwise the "right" answer.
That leaves North Carolina, which did vote for Carter in 1976 with Carter running a a "Good Ole Boy" but did not vote for Bill Clinton.