Presidents that never won Illinois for president

[Plankton5165]

There's George Washington and George Bush, and there's who else?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

There's George Washington and George Bush, and there's who else?

George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
JQ Adams
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson
Chester Arthur
Jimmy Carter
George W. Bush
Donald Trump

I think that's everyone.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

FDR never won Hawaii. Did you know that?

[Orser67]

Got curious so I looked at a few other states that presidents never won as a presidential candidate. I'm not going to list Tyler, Arthur, and Andrew Johnson, each of whom never won a state as a presidential candidate.

PA (8): J. Adams, JQA, Fillmore, Cleveland, Wilson, Truman, Ford, W Bush
NY (8): Fillmore, Buchanan, Hayes, Truman, Ford, HW Bush, W Bush, and Trump
NJ (10): Van Buren, Polk, Fillmore, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, Truman, Carter, W. Bush, Trump
OH (11): Washington, J. Adams, JQA, Van Buren, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Buchanan, Cleveland, JFK, Ford
MD (12): Van Buren, Polk, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Truman, Ford, W. Bush, Trump

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

There's George Washington and George Bush, and there's who else?

George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
JQ Adams
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson
Chester Arthur
Jimmy Carter
George W. Bush
Donald Trump

I think that's everyone.

Strikingly poor list once you get past the top four or so.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

There's George Washington and George Bush, and there's who else?

George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
JQ Adams
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Andrew Johnson
Chester Arthur
Jimmy Carter
George W. Bush
Donald Trump

I think that's everyone.

Strikingly poor list once you get past the top four or so.

Not a coincidence that the top four are also those who were presidents before Illinois was even a state.

[RINO Tom]

The gap between Arthur and Carter is kind of the birthing period of "Illinois is important to win the White House" narrative (e.g., the media making a somewhat big deal about Bush 43 being the first Republican in over 100 years to be elected without Illinois).  Sadly, that Illinois is a distant dream.  Using 2016 as an example, here is how the basic regions that they usually exit poll voted:

Chicago (20%): 82% DEM, 12% GOP
Cook Suburbs (20%): 59% DEM, 34% GOP
Collar Counties (27%): 61% DEM, 36% GOP
Downstate (33%): 62% GOP, 33% DEM

This resulted in Clinton winning 55.83% against Trump's 38.76%...

Firstly and randomly, you'll note Downstate is actually the biggest group by itself, but the Chicagoland all together clearly swamps it.  If we assume Chicago itself (32.3% White...) and even the Cook suburbs (Cook County is 42.9% White, and many of its suburbs feel more like distant Chicago neighborhoods at this point [i.e., urban, not suburban]) are more or less lost causes for the GOP and only swing those numbers 2% each (very generous), these are the numbers a Republican would STILL need to swing to win Illinois:

Chicago (20%): 80% DEM, 14% GOP
Cook Suburbs (20%): 57% DEM, 36% GOP

Collar Counties (27%): 57% GOP, 40% DEM
Downstate (33%): 68% GOP, 27% DEM

This is a Herculean task for the following reasons:

1) The Collar Counties' days of voting that Republican are over, unfortunately.  The GOP could absolutely go back to winning a slight majority there if it got its shlt together, but they are now too diverse, too generationally displaced and too fundamentally moderate (at best) for a conservative message.  Additionally, this margin would likely be by running up massive margins in McHenry and the outer counties while winning slight majorities in DuPage or Lake.

2) Downstate isn't a bunch of farms, and getting that much of a margin down there will be tough.  Downstate includes 750,000+ voters in the St. Louis suburbs, and 71.20% of Downstate Illinoisans live in a major metro area.  It is a complete and total myth that it is full of rural Republicans, as areas like Peoria, Champaign, Rockford, Bloomington, the Metro East, Springfield and the Quad Cities eat up a very large majority of its population.  Frankly, the GOP just hasn't eroded its exurban support just yet, and that gets it a ton of votes in Downstate Illinois.

3) These margins I just posted get the GOP a victory in IL ... but that victory is 47.52% to 47.39% ... a margin of 16,745 votes, lol.  As Bruce Rauner proved (in a race that is much harder than a Presidential one), a literally fantastic GOP performance in IL (where he won EVERY COUNTY BUT COOK!) still only gets you squeaking by.

IL is a fundamentally different state than it was even in the 1990s, for better and (much more, IMO) for worse.

[Kingpoleon]

There’s some evidence that John F. Kennedy May have actually lost Illinois.