Another interesting state to look out for is Alaska (more of a black sheep). While not as important in the Electoral College, winning small states like Alaska is important for Democrats to have a shot at Senate control, and Alaska is also slowly trending left regardless of the national popular vote (R +30.9 in 2000 to just R +10 in 2020). However, Alaska starts significantly to the right of GA and TX (R +11.7 and R +21.3 in 2000) and it doesn't have the obvious Democratic base (significant non-white population + educated white population) of those two states.
Another interesting state to look out for is Alaska (more of a black sheep). While not as important in the Electoral College, winning small states like Alaska is important for Democrats to have a shot at Senate control, and Alaska is also slowly trending left regardless of the national popular vote (R +30.9 in 2000 to just R +10 in 2020). However, Alaska starts significantly to the right of GA and TX (R +11.7 and R +21.3 in 2000) and it doesn't have the obvious Democratic base (significant non-white population + educated white population) of those two states.