Robert Dole's resignation from the U.S. Senate opened up a contest for Senate Republican Leader. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi was elected to replace Dole, defeating Sen. Thad Cochran, also of Mississippi.
Haley Barbour, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, is from Mississippi. Speaker Newt Gingrich is from nearby Georgia.
In the House of Representatives, the GOP Floor Leader is Texas Rep Dick Armey; the GOP Whip is Rep Tom DeLay, also of Texas.
Herbert Hoover in 1928 was the first Republican candidate to appeal to large numbers of White voters in the South. In recent years, Southern votes were important in the election strategies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In 1992, as President Bush went down to defeat in most of the country, he carried most states in the South even as he faced Southern Democrat Bill Clinton and fellow Texan Ross Perot.
The growth of Southern loyalty to the GOP, and Southern influence in the party, is linked to the growth of social conservatism in the Republican Party. White backlash is also a factor in the growth of Republican power in the South.
In 1990, David Duke was elected to the Louisiana legislature as a Republican. This year Duke backed Pat Buchanan, and Duke supporters boosted Buchanan to a victory in the Louisiana GOP Caucus. Duke supporters were also involved in the Buchanan campaign in Texas, Mississippi, Florida and South Carolina.
The Nazi-tinged Populism espoused by David Duke appeals to only a small minority in the South. Buchanan's mix of trade protection and opposition to abortion, Gay Rights and Affirmative Action appeals to a much wider audience.
The mainstream Republican politicians in the South are just ordinary "conservatives" who support conscription, the "War On Drugs," capital punishment, elimination of the Exclusionary Rule, and enough taxes to keep the Military-Industrial Complex flush. They are similar to mainstream Republican politicians in the rest of the country.
The growing power of Southern Republicans in the GOP national leadership leaves that much less room for pro-choice Republicans and other socially-tolerant conservatives. Conservatives who are really concerned with personal liberty and free trade should declare their independence from the Republican Party, and seek a better vehicle for political action.