Rock Hill, S.C. – Tickets for Friday's "First in the South" Democratic presidential forum sold out in less than five minutes. And the event's Democratic organizers are quick to contend the interest is a reflection of pent-up demand for left-leaning policies on this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

The event, which kicks off at 1 p.m. at Winthrop University, is to feature much talk of a reversal of Democratic fortunes here. Operatives will outline strategies to win back Southern voters. Rising stars will highlight success stories. And Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley will make their best case to Southern voters.

Despite talk in much of the South about shifting demographics and an influx of newcomers, the region remains firmly in GOP control. And this week’s elections underscored the near-total realignment of the South, which once was a bastion of Democratic support.

Republican Matt Bevin's surprise victory in Kentucky means the GOP controls all but one governor's mansion in the South – everywhere but Virginia – and all but one state legislative chamber. The holdout, Kentucky's House, is already in the crosshairs.

Southern Democrats hold out hope that Jon Bel Edwards, the party’s nominee for Louisiana’s governor’s race, can pull out a win later this month against a damaged Republican candidate. But the party has otherwise failed to exploit Republican divides in Washington and separate itself from President Barack Obama's struggles in the region.

Mississippi's Republican governor sailed to re-election this week over a long-haul trucker who could barely qualify as token opposition. (He didn't even vote for himself in the Democratic primary, having forgotten he was in the running.)

A costly effort to wrest control of the Virginia Senate flamed out. And Georgia Democrats, who poured so much time and treasure into last year's gubernatorial and Senate contests, still haven't fielded a candidate to challenge Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson next year.

Democrats aren’t sitting still, operatives will say. Jaime Harrison, the South Carolina party’s chair, said the event will highlight how he and his counterparts are “building state parties that will change the narrative on how the Democratic Party is viewed."

And Georgia Democratic Party chair DuBose Porter, who is hosting the event with 12 other state parties across the region, will be among the panelists on hand to discuss efforts to convince Southern voters to return to the fold. (So will the Rev. Raphael Warnock of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church).

The main event kicks off at 8 p.m. – but don’t call it a debate. It features the three leading Democratic candidates, but they will not appear together on stage. Instead, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will interview them separately in one-on-one sit-downs instead of a moderated debate.

The interviews are expected to focus on the economy and the Black Lives Matter movements that have frustrated all three Democratic campaigns. But the main theme of the event is likely to be – you guessed it – the party's Southern decay.

As Maddow told the Charlotte Observer: "I'm going to press them on the fact that we're in the South … and the fate of the Democratic Party in the South is a really interesting and, I think, daunting question for the Democratic Party."

She continues:

"Even after the Democrats went South for their [2012 Charlotte] convention, and there was all this lip service paid to how the new South was a Democratic South, there are still major races in Southern states where the Democratic Party basically isn't even fielding candidates. And that is a failure of what's supposed to be a [national] party that I haven't heard any of these candidates address meaningfully."