New ranking of most Democratic and Republican states

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I developed a method for ranking states' political preferences, based on presidential and other election results and on voter registration. In some cases, third parties are counted with one of the major parites, based on their usual alliance with some faction of the major parties.

Here's the Democratic states ranked in descending order from most Democratic:

DC
MA
RI
HI
MD
NJ
WV
NY
WA
LA
VT
IL
CT
MI
DE
CA
WI
NM
ME
OR
AR
NC
PA
IA
TN

Here's a ranking of Republican states starting with the most Republican:

ID
UT
WY
AK
NE
MT
TX
SD
NH
KS
AL
MS
SC
OH
CO
ND
GA
KY
VA
AZ
NV
OK
IN
MO
FL
MN

(If you think Minnesota doesn't belong in the Republican column, look at some of the people it's elected lately. The lower house of the state legislature is overpoweringly GOP, and it has a very right-wing Republican governor.)

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This isn't based strictly on presidential election results.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Remember, Louisiana still has a heavily Democratic legislature.

I did a ranking like this in the '80s, and the most Democratic states were in the Deep South, even though Democratic presidential candidates were getting demolished there.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

You honestly think Kerry is going to win West Virginia in 2004 though?

I think we can be almost assured that he's going to. The people of West Virginia will never let a screw-up like 2000 happen again.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I wonder, since this ranking was posted, have any of the states moved on the list?

I'd say Vermont, Minnesota, and the entire Northwestern U.S. have improved. The South has probably gotten worse.

Rural areas though have generally improved versus urban areas. In most parts of the country, the rural trend away from the Democrats peaked around 2000.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I forget the exact formula, but I think it was a mix of presidential voting results, the governors, and the breakouts of the state legislatures.