Rank the Midwestern states from most liberal to most conservative

[King of Kensington]

How would you rank the Midwestern states from most liberal to most conservative?

[GregTheGreat657]

Going by the Census Bureau definition of the Midwest

Illinois
Minnesota
Michigan
Wisconsin
Iowa
Ohio
Kansas
Indiana
Missouri
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota

[Bismarck]

Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana. Missouri and the plaines states are the hardest to place for me.

[Del Tachi]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

[Xing]

Minnesota
Illinois
Wisconsin
Michigan
Iowa
Ohio
Missouri
Indiana
South Dakota
North Dakota
Kansas
Nebraska

[Bootes Void]

Some posters here say that Minnesota is more liberal than Illinois. Just curious as to why despite the election results and policies coming out of those states

[King of Kensington]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

Kansas is more conservative than the Dakotas?

[Del Tachi]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

Kansas is more conservative than the Dakotas?

Certainly.  KS has a lot of white-collar professionals.  ND/SD are farmer-labor territory.   

[Senator-elect Spark]

Illinois
Minnesota
Michigan
Wisconsin
Iowa
Ohio
Kansas
Indiana
Missouri
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota

[pbrower2a]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

Kansas is more conservative than the Dakotas?

Certainly.  KS has a lot of white-collar professionals.  ND/SD are farmer-labor territory.    

The Junker-like corporate farmers (and they resemble the pre-Nazi Nationalist Party of Germany in economics if not foreign policy) are squeezing out the small farmers throughout the High Plains. This is more relevant in the less-industrial Dakotas. These states may be much more liberal in voting when the farm laborers are more US citizens who can express hostility toward their employers with
their votes, but we are a long way from that.

The Democratic Farmer-Labor coalition that one associates with Hubert Humphrey is losing relevance. Iowa seems to be a strong Trump state, which would have been inconceivable when Obama was President. Minnesota keeps up its liberal heritage with a different basis of white-collar suburbanites hostile to Trump-style economic elitism combined with a denigration of the mind.

Most to least liberal:

NON-SWING

Illinois
Minnesota

SWING

Michigan
Wisconsin
Ohio
Iowa

NON-SWING

Kansas
Nebraska
Montana
Indiana
South Dakota
North Dakota

Missouri is Southern (Mountain South), and is thus excluded. I included Montana as more Midwestern than anything else, as it is a southward extension of Canada's Prairie Provinces as are the Dakotas. Colorado is clearly Southwestern, having more in common politically with Arizona than with any Midwestern state.  

 

[Sol]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

Kansas is more conservative than the Dakotas?

Certainly.  KS has a lot of white-collar professionals.  ND/SD are farmer-labor territory.   

This might have been true like 30 years ago, but the Dakotas have seen their economies taken over by oil and tax haven stuff, respectively. Meanwhile Kansas actually does have relatively substantial inner city areas (plus Lawrence) which are about a fifth of the state's population, give or take--Wichita, KCMO, Lawrence, Topeka, etc. are actually a good chunk of people.

Plus the rich suburbanites in Overland Park are more liberal than voters connected to extractive or financial industries in the Dakotas.

[King of Kensington]

Kansas voted to the left of Missouri for the first time in 2020.  Notably Kansas has higher educational attainment than Missouri, and Missouri is a semi-Southern state.  KC's affluent liberalizing suburbs are also on the Kansas side.

[King of Kensington]

Illinois
Minnesota
Michigan
Wisconsin
Kansas
Iowa
Ohio
Missouri
Indiana
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota

[Del Tachi]

Most liberal:  Minnesota
Most conservative:  Kansas

Kansas is more conservative than the Dakotas?

Certainly.  KS has a lot of white-collar professionals.  ND/SD are farmer-labor territory.   

This might have been true like 30 years ago, but the Dakotas have seen their economies taken over by oil and tax haven stuff, respectively. Meanwhile Kansas actually does have relatively substantial inner city areas (plus Lawrence) which are about a fifth of the state's population, give or take--Wichita, KCMO, Lawrence, Topeka, etc. are actually a good chunk of people.

Plus the rich suburbanites in Overland Park are more liberal than voters connected to extractive or financial industries in the Dakotas.

These are all good reasons why the Dakotas may be more Republican than Kansas nowadays, not "conservative."  The built-up, inner suburban areas of KS you allude to are definitional of "small c" conservatism.