For the record, a uniform swing to a Dukakis EC majority looks like this:
This might be the last time we will ever see Montana be involved in a minimum democrat victory
Montana was only a lean R state before the Clinton-era "War on the West" environmental battles over timber and mining, two of the most unionized rural resource industries at the time. Both in the 1972 and 1984 landslides Montana was roughly within the national average. JFK and LBJ were only slightly below national average as well. Carter was weak, but he was weak in every Western state.
In addition, while I hate to drip into RINOTOM-ism, it must be noted Montana's WWII/older Silent voters were quite Democratic. In 1996, 48% of over 65 Montanans voted for Bill Clinton and were most likely to do so versus only 38 percent among Gen X. They were also most likely to vote for Max Baucus that year.
https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/1998/states/MT/polls/MT96PH.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/1998/states/MT/polls/MT96SH.html
