Northern New York

[mileslunn]

I suspect a lot has to do with the type of Republicans here.  Many are moderate Republicans who probably think the party has swung too far to the right.  As for why it didn't happen earlier, my only guess is many people are loyal to a certain party and always vote for it no matter what; much like whites in the South didn't swing to the Democrats overnight, it took time; so the older voters continued to vote GOP out of tradition, but as they died off, they weren't able to replace them with newer voters as the newer voters voted more based on ideology rather than tradition.  Otherwise every four years, some of the older voters die and some new one's either through becoming of age or naturalization (not really a factor here) are eligible to vote so you have to take this into account.