any Democratically-controlled state legislatures....It really is a clean sweep."

Analysts see a number of demographic, cultural, and political factors behind the collapse of the Democratic party in the region. Merle Black, a professor of political science at Emory University who specializes in American politics in the South, directed the lion's share of the blame at a national party leadership that has lurched leftward over the last decade.

"The Democratic Party is now dominated by very liberal politicians from the Northeast and Pacific coast and from the metropolitan areas of the country," he explained. "Their priorities, interests, and values have very little appeal among white southerners."

Black cited a turn away from the center-left Democratic platform of former President Bill Clinton, who famously declared an end to the era of big government,toward a more recent agenda focused on "enlarging the role of the federal government." The passage of Obamacare in 2010, he added, has been the "driving force" behind the opposition to Landrieu and other Southern Democrats among white voters in the region.

Others have blamed the Democratic Party's near-unanimous embrace of progressive causes like abortion rights and same-sex marriage for its sinking fortunes in the South, given the dominance of Christian conservatism in the region.

"You used to have this cadre of conservative, southern Democrats who were culturally, religiously conservative," recalled Cordes. "And you really don't see that any more. The party is pretty solidly pro-gay marriage....pro-abortion rights, and that's something that just doesn't square with a lot of rural, southern Democratic voters."

"The Democratic party has become a much more