Dukakis in the Midwest and Bush in New England

[Gustaf]

In the 80s, old Republican areas had not yet realigned towards Democrats, but were fully prepared to vote Republican. As someone said Bush was exactly the kind of Republican whom Northeastern Republicans would like.

[Gustaf]

To be fair though, Bush won the Northeastern popular vote 50-49 and the Midwestern 52-48. EV was about 40-60 and 80-20 respectively.

[Gustaf]

To be fair though, Bush won the Northeastern popular vote 50-49 and the Midwestern 52-48. EV was about 40-60 and 80-20 respectively.

What states are you including in the Northeast and Midwest?

8 states a piece: New Jersey, New York and everything Northeast of that as Northeast, Minnesota, Iowa and everything East of that as Midwest (not including West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. which I consider to be border states.)

[Gustaf]

So you're including Pennsylvania in the Midwest?

Lot of questions with no comments here...

Yes, that would be correct. You want to put Pennsylvania in the Northeast? I guess a case for that could be made.

[Gustaf]

Lot of questions with no comments here...

Alright.

I guess your point is that Bush's numbers were better in the Midwest than was stated by an earlier poster and ditto for Dukakis in the Northeast. However (though I haven't done the math), I would expect the party gap between the Northeast and the Midwest to have been smaller in 1988 than in previous and more recent years.

As for Pennsylvania, I would have put in the Northeast, but either way's fine.

Obviously, yes. The Midwest is usually close and the Northeast today leans Democrat. Earlier though, this wasn't really the case.