Political ideology and economic development are relatively connected in the United States. Historically, the southern states had a lot of people who were rich and had large pieces of land because of slavery that enabled them to have free work force. The south therefore developed rapidly and accumulated wealth, which led to a conservative point of view where free market and slavery were appreciated. The north was a bit different because it relied more on trade than on production. Religiously, the more western you went the higher the religious freedom was, which is why you have Mormons as far as Utah and protestants that weren't afraid of Puritans.
