Ranking the States Demographically, from Most Republican-Friendly to Most Democratic-Friendly
Dear Readers: Join us Tuesday, Feb. 15 as Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato interviews ABC News’ Jonathan Karl about his new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. The program will run from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. eastern time, and you can watch live at this link. See here for more information about the event. – The Editors KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — For all 50 states, we looked at 3 variables that are increasingly linked with partisan voting patterns: education level, race, and urbanization. — When the states are rank-ordered by their composite scores on these 3 measures, the Republican-voting states for the 2020 presidential election cluster on one end of the spectrum, while the Democratic-voting states cluster at the other end, with many battleground states somewhere in the middle. — In both the top (Republican) and bottom (Democratic) halves of our 1-through-50 list, only 5 out of 25 states broke ranks by voting for the presidential candidate who was at odds with the state’s demographic tendencies. This suggests that these 3 demographic factors have a strong influence on presidential voting behavior. The 3 demographics that help sort the states In contemporary politics,