The 5 poorest states are all in the south

[Art_from_Ark]

22. If you think that's bad,

you should visit Lee County on the Mississippi River, which I believe is the poorest in the state.

On the other hand, there is Northwest Arkansas, which is home to Wal-Mart, Tyson's, Arvest, and the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas, not to mention thousands of wealthy retirees and various industries. There are also all sorts of new developments going up, like this one http://www.pinnaclecc.com/ The area consistently votes Republican, and has had a Republican Congressman since 1967.

This is just a theory of mine, but I get the feeling that a lot of people in the rest of the state, who have long voted Democratic, may have started to look at the Northwest and wonder if they could get their local economies stimulated by voting Republican. This might help explain (but not completely explain) why all of the state's US representatives are now Republicans, the first time that's happened since Reconstruction.

On edit: Another thing to take into consideration about the state's recent voting patterns is the leadership crisis that has been affecting the Arkansas Democratic Party since the former party chairman, Bill Gwatney, was murdered in a bizarre incident in his office back in 2008.