Which area is most progressive?

[SaneDemocrat]

Rural areas

[Pink Panther]

I would probably say Rural South Carolina, since a lot of GOP support comes from cities in the Northwestern part of the state and suburbs/beach towns along major cities and the coast. A lot of the rurals themselves are decently black, and probably more progressive.

[Tartarus Sauce]

None of these areas are progressive in even the slightest, so the state with the highest average rural black population wins by default. That would probably be either South Carolina or Mississippi.

[Skill and Chance]

Probably Louisiana because of the Huey Long->JBE tradition?

[SaneDemocrat]

Interesting

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

I know that Democrats have in recent decades performed somewhat better among rural whites in North Carolina than among rural whites in any of these other states, but they've been moving in the same direction as rural whites everywhere else.

[GregTheGreat657]

Rural Mississippi because of the large African American population in the Delta

[Big Abraham]

Black Southerners aren't really progressive at all; they're moderate, and they backed Clinton and Biden over more leftist candidates by extremely large margins.

Anyway, I'll say North Carolina. The westernmost counties in the Appalachian tradition of N.C. backed Bernie in '16 and '20, and Appalachia does have a strong left-wing/trade-union history.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Rural Mississippi because of the large African American population in the Delta

Democrat ≠ Progressive

African American ≠ Progressive

People forget the black belt is itself just a subsection of the black belt…

The answer is Rural NC because (unlike the rest of these options) it does have small towns in rural areas with some actual left leaning tendencies that spread out some like around the Durham area, Asheville Area, and Boone. There is no Boone or anything close to it in any other state on the list.

[smoltchanov]

Rural Mississippi because of the large African American population in the Delta

Democrat ≠ Progressive

African American ≠ Progressive

People forget the black belt is itself just a subsection of the black belt…

The answer is Rural NC because (unlike the rest of these options) it does have small towns in rural areas with some actual left leaning tendencies that spread out some like around the Durham area, Asheville Area, and Boone. There is no Boone or anything close to it in any other state on the list.

+1

[Sol]

Black Southerners aren't really progressive at all; they're moderate, and they backed Clinton and Biden over more leftist candidates by extremely large margins.

Anyway, I'll say North Carolina. The westernmost counties in the Appalachian tradition of N.C. backed Bernie in '16 and '20, and Appalachia does have a strong left-wing/trade-union history.

I agree with this answer but I actually don't agree with your reasoning. North Carolina has a decent claim of being the state most hostile to labor unions in the country, despite the fairly strong manufacturing history. Western North Carolina was less industrial than the Piedmont, actually--it never had real coal-mining.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Rural NC

[Houstonian Sock]

Texas because we were first to ban abortion

[mpbond]

Probably Louisiana because of the Huey Long->JBE tradition?

Plus, much of Louisiana is Catholic, which while still conservative, is probably a tiny bit less so than their evangelical counterparts in those other areas