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Top 10 U.S. States by Republican Party Support

Name the 10 most Republican states as measured by the Republican margin of victory in the last four Presidential elections.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 14, 2020
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First submittedSeptember 4, 2016
Times taken47,786
Average score70.0%
Rating4.31
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%
State
40.7
Wyoming
33.6
Oklahoma
30.2
West Virginia
30.0
Idaho
28.7
Utah
%
State
24.5
Arkansas
24.3
North Dakota
24.2
Alabama
23.7
Kentucky
21.2
Tennessee
+21
Level 60
Sep 5, 2016
Quite surprised Alaska or Texas isn't on here
+43
Level 90
Sep 6, 2016
Texas has been shifting left for the past 20 years as more and more 2nd-generation Hispanic immigrants have flooded the state. Houston, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, and other urban areas that make up a big portion of the state population are now strongly blue, and only getting more so. The whole state (and therefore the whole country) will be blue in another 20 years.
+8
Level 25
Sep 7, 2016
Well, time to start voting Libertarian, I guess
+20
Level 60
Sep 7, 2016
I hope you meant that as a joke. Gary Johnson is not a true Libertarian. I'd be ok with him taking votes from Trump, if he were a true Libertarian. Just look at his stances on things, and then look at what the Libertarian party stands for, and you'll see that they don't compare. He is a wolf in sheeps clothing. He nearly goes full tantrum mode just from hearing "illegal immigrant". Gary Johnson is a joke.
+41
Level 28
Nov 6, 2016
I agree that Texas is becoming bluer. However, this is countered by some states like Pennsylvania and Michigan starting to look redder. It's just the way politics are done in this country. States shift. Just look at history, the term "solid south" used to refer to the tendency of the southern states to vote democrat. And if times really do change so much that Republicans simply can't win anymore, then the party will simply realign itself. There's a reason that every president for the last 150 years has been either a democrat or republican.
+11
Level 77
Aug 31, 2017
The other explanation of the shift in demographics is the mass exodus of blue collar workers from rust belt states in search of jobs. Ohio lost THOUSANDS of people and many of them went to Texas. Same with many of the other rust belt states. Which also helps explain why Clinton failed to capture those states like her democratic predecessors did. So many of her constituents fled south. Obviously, there are WAY more factors, but this is something to consider as well.
+7
Level 44
Jan 18, 2018
Politics always seems to work on a pendulum and will find its way back to one side or the other. I think once the boomers are gone this country will swing hard left with more social economics as resources are running scarce. Libertarianism here in America are a joke, it is a spawn of the John Birch Society for hard right ideology and pro corporation. Rand Paul is nowhere close to a true libertarian. Sorry/not sorry.
+6
Level 70
Sep 9, 2018
You can see how well Beto O‘Rourke is doing. I expect TX to vote blue by 2024
+19
Level 82
Sep 28, 2018
Curious to see if the Republicans could win without Texas I went to 270towin and played around with the interactive map for 2020 there. If Texas went blue and the Republicans kept every state that Trump won in 2016, they would only have to pick up Colorado and Michigan to stay at 270 electoral college votes and win a presidential election. That would be amazing... and they'd probably be losing the popular vote by 6 million at that point instead of just 3. We really need to abolish the electoral college.
+2
Level 50
Oct 29, 2018
Its probably gonna stay red for a while, but it is shifting blue. In fact, southern states in general are shifting blue, while more midwestern and some northern states are shifting red. My guess is that Republicans are more economic based now than socially conservative based, and Trump's businessman aspects support this. The southern states care less about economics, while blue collar, great lake and northeastern states care about having a better economy. Texas becoming blue has this to blame and californians/mexicans moving into the country shift the demographics.
+4
Level 43
Feb 15, 2020
The parties shift as the population does, so that would never happen.
+8
Level 74
Mar 16, 2021
"Flooded" sounds like a pretty unfriendly word to use here!
+1
Level 55
Mar 17, 2021
Someone mentioned Gary Johnson not being libertarian enough because he is against illegal immigration. However, you can't really have unlimited immigration with a huge govt and nanny welfare state. If everyone is going to operate on their own, that is one thing, but you can't have a big nanny state with open borders that forces the citizens to pay for everything and give up control. So, I doubt Gary is going to change on that view, when the govt already intrudes on libertarian values in every way, and then demands we bring in more people and fund all of these systems.
+2
Level 55
Mar 17, 2021
People sure hate the electoral college, but are very short-sighted in my opinion. The founders were wise enough to see these potential problems and plan for it. A man should have to win the majority of different regions to be president, not just win a few states with huge metropolis populations that he caters to. We don't live in a full democracy like ancient Athens; we live in a Constitutional Representative Republic with a constitution. Two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch is democracy. The mob will just keep dumping on the rest of the nation and taking from them, which is what they are trying to do now, or bringing in enough of the voters they want from elsewhere.
+1
Level 65
Jul 14, 2023
So what I'm getting from this is you hate liberal areas and wish to severely dilute their voting power by overstating the power of other states... Sure two wolves and a sheep deciding on what to eat is democracy, but if you give the sheep 3 votes, who's going to win? It makes no sense that a person should win various regions, some of which are absolutely tiny (New England) and some of which are absolutely huge (California, Texas). Why should a person in Wyoming have three times the voting power of one in California? It just doesn't make sense. And yes, a president should appeal to all voters. But they shouldn't just appeal to a bunch of rural voters with way overinflated voting powers. As a side note, Athens was not a full democracy, as the vast majority of the population couldn't vote, and the U.S. is not representative, as a person in Wyoming has 66 times the representation (in the Senate) as someone in California.
+3
Level 72
Mar 17, 2021
@bozoclown The issue with this argument is that it assumes the electoral college adequately protects smaller states, when it most certainly doesn't. It so happens that populous states are somewhat split between parties right now, but that doesn't have to be the case. The few largest states can still totally win the electoral college. In 2020 and with projected 2024 votes, you only need the top 11 (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and New Jersey) to win. This is unlikely to happen right now but a lot of these states are shifting blue. And because of how the electoral college works, you only need a majority in each of these states to win, not even everyone. The big cities of each state can dominate a lot of them.

There's an argument to be made that the electoral college does a little bit to protect smaller states— I mean it does give them a few extra votes, after all. But it is hardly a safeguard against mob rule.

+3
Level 67
Mar 17, 2021
Most of the regions go the same way every election. The northeast and Pacific states go blue. The Bible Belt goes red. The Midwest is the only region that swings back and forth. If you win that, you win. The Electoral College also effectively disenfranchises a huge swath of the electorate because a Republican's vote in New York and a Democrat's vote in Wyoming are pointless. All other points aside, the goal should be first and foremost to encourage citizens to vote. The fact that all but ten or so states are decided before a vote is even cast cannot help voter turnout. It probably hurts turnout even among the majority in those states. If you live in Illinois and vote Democrat, you might be less likely to wait in line to vote because you know your state is already going blue. Same for a Republican in Alabama. The popular vote is always close. It makes more votes (all votes, in fact) matter, so it should reign.
+4
Level 82
Mar 18, 2021
bozo: that's not at all what the founders had in mind. That's the BS argument cooked up by those in the minority who wish to maintain their unfair and disproportionate grip on power without actually doing anything to appeal to more people.
+5
Level 43
Feb 15, 2020
Texas has a lot of big cities, but I was also surprised by Alaska
+2
Level 65
Mar 16, 2021
Percentage, not amount of voters.
+1
Level 75
Mar 16, 2021
As far as I know, very generally, big cities tend to vote Democrat while towns and rural areas tend to vote Republican.

Bdubz is pointing out that it's not so surprising that Texas has a big blue percentage since it has big cities, but it is surprising that Alaska isn't redder since it is pretty much all towns and rural.

+1
Level 74
Mar 16, 2021
I mean 40% of the population of Alaska lives in Anchorage, and there is a large Native American minority in the state. I'm honestly surprised it isn't BLUER
+1
Level 75
Mar 16, 2021
Interesting. I thought Anchorage was 40,000 people or so, but in fact it is a big city.
+1
Level 72
Mar 17, 2021
Some California hippies moved up there too. They're getting older so they might start becoming conservative (or their values might start being considered conservative), but at least anecdotally two of my aunts moved to Alaska decades ago and are still solidly voting blue.
+1
Level 65
Apr 15, 2021
I live in Alaska. The politics of the state are a lot more complicated than often given credit for. Rural areas and Southeast Alaska are definitely blue and really only the Mat-Su Valley (where Sarah Palin and her base live) is the solid red of both social and economic conservatism. Lisa Murkowski's brand of Republicans, along with independents, libertarians, and moderate Democrats are much more common in the state than they seem to be in national politics at this time. Alaska, although repeatedly voting Republican for president, has never been the same kind of red state as Wyoming, or Oklahoma.
+4
Level 82
Jul 15, 2020
Some of the latest polls have Biden in the lead in Texas vs Trump in 2020, and the Biden campaign has started running ads there. I guess it's officially a swing state now.
+4
Level 82
Jul 20, 2020
and Alaska is in play, too, even though it has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since '64.
+9
Level 45
Aug 2, 2020
Texas will still vote red. At least I hope.
+6
Level 92
Dec 14, 2020
Texas is gravitating towards swing state status but Biden didn’t come close to winning to Texas. Don’t know what the problem is, but the polls are a joke now at least for states. The overall outcome was predicted but still the margin wasn’t close to the polling estimates. Maybe they’re just not reaching an appropriate cross section of voters, whether it be their method of communication, reluctance of certain groups of voters to participate or be truthful, or who knows. Maybe even the conspiracy folks’ notion that they’re intentionally being biased.
+4
Level 75
Dec 15, 2020
A curious thing that happened in the 2020 election is the latino support for Trump.

I can't really explain why, but my most educated guess is that Biden embodied too much of an American establishment of which Latin Americans tend to be weary

Also, Trump sold rather well the idea that this establishment was part of a radical left (Biden is nothing of the sort), which is a very sensitive topic in Latin America. Particularly in countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, and Chile, which have had important shifts to the left either through elected leaders or social movements.

+3
Level 80
Dec 17, 2020
Did Latinos really support trump, or was it just a minor swell of support? Every group in society has left and conservative wings. While Latin America seems to be experiencing polarisation too, surely Latinos overall in the US would be tending left? Due to popular leftist traditions in Latin America, and their conditions experienced in the US - low wages, high inequality, racism/ xenophobia/scapegoating? (Tho IMHO democrats aren't a left wing party in the European or Latin American sense).
+3
Level 71
Jan 5, 2021
While Texas may not a swing state yet, the margin of victory for Republicans went from ~16% in 2012 to ~9% in 2016 to ~5.5% in 2020. And Georgia, also deep red once, had its margin swing by about 5% in just 4 years to vote for Biden. Texas becoming purple may not be happening as soon as Democrats like, but it's still happening. I'm guessing it'll be a major swing state by the end of the decade (maybe 2028?).
+4
Level 71
Feb 18, 2021
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if a moderate, well-funded Democrat wins Ted Cruz's Senate seat. Beto came fairly close to beating him in 2018, and in addition to demographic changes, Ted Cruz is... not very popular to say the least. Abandoning the people you represent at their lowest point is a pretty bad idea if you want to win them over.

That being said, he may be the one taking up Trump's mantle pretty soon. And he certainly remains popular among certain groups. It's hard to tell what his political future is at this point.

+2
Level 55
Mar 16, 2021
The minority populations, which tend to vote Democrat are growing in places like Dallas Suburbs, which the republicans need to win in the future.
+1
Level 74
Mar 16, 2021
Texas actually had the 3rd lowest Republican margin in 2020 (after North Carolina and Florida) so I would see Texas as a swing state as early as 2028, maybe even 2024
+3
Level 55
Mar 17, 2021
Many Hispanics are actually quite conservative, on work ethic, religion, masculinity, and family values. While the majority vote democrat, there is always a third or more that will lean conservative or libertarian. When you work hard, believe in traditional families and gender roles, gun rights, free speech, low taxes, Christianity, and such, there really isn't a huge reason for you to vote Democrat. The Dems have somehow gone from the party that used to champion the working class family man to the party that cobblestoned together a bunch of fringe groups, women, noncitizens, minorities, gays, and academics/bureaucrats. They seem much more interested in people who aren't citizens and global programs and having 400 pronouns, socialism, etc. The socialist leanings really scare people like Jorge Masvidal(UFC fighter) and those from Cuba and Venezuela who have seen these systems spiral out of control.
+1
Level 65
Apr 4, 2023
A few little fact-checks here: Democrats are not pushing for the usage of 400 pronouns - as you so put it, they are pushing for people to accept others and see them the way they want to be seen. Calling them out for this is just as silly and childish as making fun of a boy for liking the color pink. It's their decision, it's their life, and it's the way they want to be seen. Also, there are only seven, that's right, SEVEN democrats who are actively socialists in the U.S. House. All of them come from solidly democratic areas mostly in solidly democratic states (as of the 2022 midterms). Most Democrats, in fact, argue against socialism, favoring appeasing their capitalist donors and being devoutly capitalist. To add to that, the socialism socialist Democrats argue for is not the socialism of Cuba and Venezuela. Those two have undemocratic pseudo-socialism, similar to how China is pseudo-communist. These countries do not entertain the same socialism most socialists stand for.
+1
Level 65
Jul 14, 2023
I'm also going to add that your little statement of the Democrats "cobblestoning a bunch of fringe groups" is telling. It seems to me that Democrats are able to appeal to a wider range of people, while Republicans mainly appeal to white men. I'm not going to fight you over the Democrats no longer championing working-class families, but do you really think Republicans are doing that? I live in a pretty Hispanic area of California, and I can tell you that not only do many of them not vote, but they also just hate Biden and see the Democrats as dysfunctional (which in California, they pretty much are).
+1
Level 49
Jan 19, 2024
Women are a 'fringe group'. Really?

I don't usually get personal in comments, but I can't help pointing out that your comment is a compelling demonstration of nominative determinism.

+1
Level 72
Mar 17, 2021
Adding on to that a lot of Catholics who aren't too invested into politics will vote Republican as a vote against abortion. And a lot of Latinos are Catholic.
+1
Level 82
Mar 18, 2021
Latinos on average vote for Democratic presidential candidates about 2/3 of the time. Though Bush in 2004 carried 40%.
+2
Level 62
Mar 16, 2021
rocky mountain heist.
+3
Level 65
Sep 7, 2016
i got 6 from UK happy with that... How did i not get Nebraska though! Good luck...surely he can't win!?!?
+1
Level 93
Jul 11, 2023
This comment aged hilariously ngl
+3
Level 55
Feb 8, 2018
Where is the deep South? lmao the answers to this quiz caught me off guard.
+8
Level 82
Apr 3, 2018
The urban centers in the deep South have an awful lot of "Black" voters which vote overwhelmingly Democratic and many of them also have large communities of Hispanic voters which are more or less evenly split. Cities like Austin, Atlanta, Raleigh, etc. have many college-educated "White" voters who tend to vote Democratic. The Southern states are still pretty solidly Republican for the time being (demagogues like Trump combined with the rising number of Latinos may eventually change that) but they're not nearly as homogenous as the more rural and more "White" midwestern states that show up here.
+2
Level 68
Mar 16, 2021
"The Southern states are still pretty solidly Republican for the time being"

Well it seems like that is changing, at least some of them. Not that I expect Alabama to vote Democrat anytime soon though...

+5
Level 70
Sep 9, 2018
Very very surprised by the absence of Mississippi. I was told that it‘s one of (if not) the most conservative states in America
+4
Level 82
Oct 11, 2018
Culturally and historically and by the majority of the population in the state, yeah, but look at the comment I made above in response to Nick. There are many Democratic voters in the South they are just outnumbered most places there. Some of this has to do with the fact that there are fewer cities in the South and they are not as large. There is a rural/urban divide in America just like in many places. The midwest is even more rural, though.
+1
Level 74
Mar 16, 2021
The reason Mississippi isn't as Red is not actually because the minorities all live in the cities. All the biggest cities in Mississippi (other than Jackson) actually lean Republican. There is a large rural minority population near the Mississippi River.
+7
Level 79
Dec 2, 2019
Surprised by the low % of quizzers who got West Virginia.
+2
Level 74
Feb 18, 2021
It isn't really in the area people think about when they think about "republican"
+9
Level 67
Mar 16, 2021
What's interesting about this comment is that the section of the US containing West Virginia is *very* conservative. It's just that West Virginia is surrounded by deep red parts of states that people consider "blue" or "swing" states. But western Pennsylvania (with the notable exception of Pittsburgh), western Virginia, southeastern Ohio, and all of Kentucky are deep red. This is one of the problems with thinking of states as red or blue. By area, 90% of New York and Illinois are red, yet they are deep blue states because each has one very populous metro.
+1
Level 78
Mar 16, 2021
Louisville and Lexington are solidly blue but the rest of Kentucky is very, very red.
+12
Level 68
Mar 16, 2021
aka best places to live in
+7
Level 89
Mar 16, 2021
Not a fan of oceans, perhaps?
+1
Level 63
Mar 18, 2021
lol
+1
Level 58
Feb 20, 2022
West Virginia lol
+2
Level 83
Sep 1, 2022
West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma are not making anyone's short list for best places to live in...........
+2
Level 62
Oct 13, 2022
Beautiful states, all three of them. West Virginia and Kentucky are especially great for nature lovers. And Oklahoma is really convenient to live in and has great fishing.
+1
Level 46
Mar 16, 2021
Would have expected South Carolina or Mississippi🤔
+1
Level 52
Mar 16, 2021
I crossed them off the list. There are many black people there (and they tend to vote Democrat)
+4
Level ∞
Mar 18, 2021
Someone made a comment here complaining about how one of their comments got deleted. To which I will say this. When one of your comments sparks a long string of vitriolic back and forth, then we often simply delete the whole thread. JetPunk is not a political debate site and we intend to keep it that way. Don't stir the pot.
+1
Level 73
Oct 29, 2021
Perhaps just delete any comment that has to do with politics, as it seems people get offended by anything these days...
+1
Level 93
Jul 11, 2023
When the quiz itself is about politics in the most straight forward sense, deleting all comments that have anything to do with politics would leave you with no comments whatsoever.
+2
Level 82
May 11, 2021
Six of these also appear on the 10 poorest states quiz, while none appear on the 10 richest states quiz (which contains only one state that went GOP in 2020 - Alaska). This perhaps flies in the face of the traditional view of the GOP as the party of the wealthy, but perhaps aligns with the Trump-era narrative of disenfranchised white working class voters supporting Trump vs coastal Democratic elites. However actual data from 2020 shows that high income voters still very much support the GOP, in line with the traditional view, while low income voters overwhelmingly support the Dems. Yet a states' overall median income seems to suggest the inverse. Curious.
+2
Level 82
Aug 28, 2022
There aren't enough of the party's true constituents (the wealthiest 1% or 0.1%) to actually matter when it comes to counting votes, so of course they have to rely on large numbers of other people voting against their interests, which of course they do thanks to the non-stop propaganda they get on the media outlets founded and run by the constituents mentioned above.
+2
Level 77
Sep 21, 2022
I feel like Florida is going to creep onto this list shortly.
+2
Level 82
Oct 14, 2022
No way... Trump got 51% of the vote in Florida in 2020. It's one of the closest of all swing states. Though for many years it has been saddled with some of the worst GOP governors in the country, and has been badly gerrymandered and rigged in favor of their party, so much so that in a state that is roughly 50/50 Republican and Democrat, Republicans hold 24 out of 40 Senate seats and 78 out of 120 House seats... but even though the general populace of the state has been drifting slightly redder recently, it's still not going to be even a safe bet for Republicans when it comes to presidential elections any time in the near future. And the makeup of local politics in the state is subject to change, too. Ron DeSantis only won the governorship in 2018 with 49.59% of the vote (to his opponent's 49.19%). Don't be fooled into thinking the entire state is as bad as he is.
+1
Level 82
Nov 14, 2022
and re: DeSantis, from Trump's own lips recently: the election was illegally stolen for him by Trump. Though IMO this story was completely made up...
+1
Level 93
Jul 11, 2023
Remind me how much their governor just won re-election by...? Also just considering how much of a landslide the Republican Party had in 2022 in the state it's pretty safe to say Florida will be starting off as "Likely Republican" in 2024. It's not a swing state anymore than Colorado is at this point.
+1
Level 82
Oct 14, 2022
Just for reference... the numbers that would appear in the % column for Florida for these past election years:

2020: 3.3%

2016: 1.2%

2012: -0.9%

2008: -2.8%

2004: 5.2%

2000: 0.1%

So if you average the last four elections that's 0.2% for Republicans. Which actually makes it the most competitive state in the entire USA.

+2
Level 73
Apr 1, 2023
Two potential interesting variants on this:

-States with the most Republican votes over the last four elections

-States with the greatest margin of Republican votes by actual vote total over the last four elections