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No, Kansas up through the Dakotas. 

Cali and Illinois red. Texas blue.

Illinois and Texas with the same # of electoral votes at 26.

Now Texas has 38, and growing. Illinois has 20, soon to be 15.

1976 was also the final presidential election that factored in "The Solid South."  Southerners hated the Republicans for what they considered to be unnecessary brutality during Radical Reconstruction after the Civil War.

So they voted solidly against the Democrats, until 1980 when many of them finally figured out that the party values had changed and that the Republicans were now the conservatives, and the Democrats had become the Progressive party.  Even in 1976 they were effectively voting against their own interests, but that changed in 1980.

Of the Solid South, only Georgia remained Democrat, and that's probably explained by Carter's regional appeal/

1976 was also the final presidential election that factored in "The Solid South."  Southerners hated the Republicans for what they considered to be unnecessary brutality during Radical Reconstruction after the Civil War.

So they voted solidly against the Democrats, until 1980 when many of them finally figured out that the party values had changed and that the Republicans were now the conservatives, and the Democrats had become the Progressive party.  Even in 1976 they were effectively voting against their own interests, but that changed in 1980.

Of the Solid South, only Georgia remained Democrat, and that's probably explained by Carter's regional appeal/

The pre-1960s Democratic Party was also a particularly odd big tent. Built on the backs of European immigrants in the north, a long history with the white power structure in the south.

That kind of split would be much harder to pull off these days. But in the 1960s, everyone sort of abandoned that part of the south for a bit, and parts of it were accepted back.

That 1980 election also turned on that mess in Iran, Carter’s handling of it and genera economic malaise. It’s weird to think about elections from 1968-1980 very often turning less on party feelings and more on particular situational factors. (Maybe that’s what we’ve been doing of late, though it seems more personality based)

No, Kansas up through the Dakotas.

I consider those Great Plains states...

...as someone born in the Midwest. 

1980 and Ronald was the first time my Grandfather, a staunch Democrat, voted for a Republican

never happened again

Think of the states in the "Northwest Territories" ....  NW?

Maryland is south of the M-W line, to the extent that is of any note, and was a slave state with KY and MO.  Is that the actual abbrev. for Missouri?

Delaware also was a slave state, but nobody cares about DE except corporations.

I think culturally and politically, states can evolve over time and become "something else".  Look at the Presidential map of the 1976 election, the typical blue and red states are often reversed.  Of course, there was a regional candidate to some extent (Carter).  This was really a W vs E kind of result.

If this map happened in 2020, all of the pundits' heads would have exploded.  I'm all for it.