Text book post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.  

The long and short of it is this: those states were poor states for centuries.  They were also heavily Democratic states originally.  The states switched to Republican when the Democratic party started to become the party of radical secular leftist values.  Republicans have only controlled those states for about a generation or so.  It is going to take more than a generation of Republican control to eliminate centuries of poverty.  

Liberals like to point out that the 10 poorest states in the union are Republican controlled.  However, Conservatives point out that the 10 poorest cities are Democrat controlled.  Republicans can point to Democratic policy that has lead to the poverty in the cities.

What Republican policies can you point to that has caused the poverty in the southern states?