This might have literally killed the GOP.
Vermont was pretty Internationalist, I think Taft would have better luck in the isolationist plains states.
Yes but Vermont had also literally never voted for a Democrat before (a streak it wouldn’t break until 1964), even during FDR’s 1936 landslide. Maine I think does go here, but Vermont would be a harder holdout. It was still the most Republican state in the country in 1952, though with Ike as the Democratic nominee it probably comes closer than it ever has and maybe it does flip and we end up with a complete sweep.
The plains states I think Ike still would have carried due to his personal popularity, as he did running as a Republican anyway. They might have been closer against Taft though. But it doesn’t hurt that Ike is from Kansas. And the isolationism was fading somewhat by 1952.