Border states in 1864

[TDAS04]

In 1864, Lincoln got crushed in Kentucky and also lost Delaware (and New Jersey).  Yet, he carried Maryland and won landslide victories in Missouri and West Virginia.

Can anyone explain these results?

[OSR stands with Israel]

West Virginia was the part of Virginia that was strongly opposed to secession and was created for the sole purpose of being pro union so it’s not surprising they overwhelmingly backed Lincoln . Furthermore Lincoln did very well in the Eastern Part of Kentucky As Appalachia itself was very pro union

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

KY and DE were slave states. I don't know why New Jersey voted for McClellan though.

[CookieDamage]

KY and DE were slave states. I don't know why New Jersey voted for McClellan though.

NJ was his home state lol

[Republican Party Stalwart]

KY and DE were slave states. I don't know why New Jersey voted for McClellan though.

NJ, being in the mid-Atlantic and lacking a large rural/heartland interior like New York, was always a broadly mercantile state, and its pre-1936 Presidential voting habits reflected this; it was Federalist-leaning, then it was Whig-leaning, then it was later Republican-leaning during the 1896-1932 Progressive Era/Fourth Party System. It was also the last antebellum free state to abolish legal chattel slavery, only doing so in 1846. Likely that NJ was a state with a large slavery-profiteer/"Cotton-Whig" tendency.

[Republican Party Stalwart]

In 1864, Lincoln got crushed in Kentucky and also lost Delaware (and New Jersey).  Yet, he carried Maryland and won landslide victories in Missouri and West Virginia.

Can anyone explain these results?

I feel like the border state returns from 1864 (and, to be frank, probably 1868 and 1872 as well, if to a lesser extent) are not necessarily truly indicative of the actual political feelings of the population at the time, considering the duress created by the circumstances of the Civil War and early Reconstruction. For most of the areas affected in 1864 (Missouri, WV, and Maryland, but also in the Jackson Purchase area of KY which was famously more secessionist than the rest of the state), this probably meant results skewed in favor of the Republicans, but in some other areas this may have meant results skewed in favor of the Democrats (parts of Kentucky which have been solidly Republican since between 1864 and 1877, and which may have been R-leaning in 1864 relative to the rest of the state that year, but which nonetheless voted D in 1864 and/or in 1868, 1872, or 1876 because of the outsized influence of anti-war/CSA sympathizers in the state - even in some, but not all, parts of the broader pro-Union R-leaning belt in Southeastern and South-central KY).

[Republican Party Stalwart]

West Virginia was the part of Virginia that was strongly opposed to secession and was created for the sole purpose of being pro union so it’s not surprising they overwhelmingly backed Lincoln .

This was true in the particular areas of WV (the areas adjacent to the Ohio River, Pennsylvania, and/or NW Maryland) that were represented in the Unionist Wheeling Government, but much of the South-central and Eastern interior of West Virginia was broadly pro-secession, and consequently did not participate in the 1864 (Union) election (if you look at results by county). Much of the West Virginia population was either pro-secession or, even more commonly, "neutral" in their stance on the war. Many West Virginians either fought for the confederacy or fought for both sides at different times depending on who provided the highest wages or best opportunities in the moment. WV was actually the only border state that provided more confederate soldiers than Union soldiers (although I don't know how that figure counts or doesn't count those who fought for both sides).

Furthermore Lincoln did very well in the Eastern Part of Kentucky As Appalachia itself was very pro union

  

*Southeastern Kentucky, to be specific; the "central" part of Eastern KY, approximately the belt north of Perry and Owsley Counties and south of Lewis County, was very D-leaning from during the Civil War up until the "final stages" (in the 2010's) of the "Southern party switch (and still somewhat D-leaning today at the state and local levels).