While it is true that pretty much everywhere I’ve lived in this country is decidedly blue, I have always had close friends who were conservative, and have done so intentionally.
Discussing politics with my liberal friends is boring.
I live in NJ, which votes blue (albeit much of that comes from the overcrowded inner cities). Everyone in my family, immediate and otherwise, is conservative, heck even when I was in education the people I formed friendships with were generally conservative politically. I typically found the history teachers, who were defininvity left, generally unfriendly. I also found that educators who either worked in inner city schools or had left inner schools admitted that experience changed their political views from liberal or very liberal to less or much less liberal.