Winning Red States

Senator Obama continues to rack up impressive wins in red states. He’s not just winning by small margins. His string of 2-to-1 and better victories continues to grow.

Here’s the same table I posted after Super Tuesday, updated for Obama’s decisive wins in Louisiana and Nebraska and Clinton’s narrow win in New Mexico. The table is arranged in descending order of the decisiveness of Obama’s wins. As before, the blue rows show Obama’s wins, the pink Clinton’s, and the darker shades of each color wins by a margin of 2-to-1 or greater. (Obama’s landslide in Washington state doesn’t count, as Washington is a blue state.)

[Please scroll down to see the table. I can’t fix this gap with my knowledge of HTML.]

Red State	Obama/Clinton Vote (percent)	Edwards Vote	Obama/Clinton Ratio	Electoral Votes
Idaho	80/17	-	>4 to 1	4
Alaska	74/25	-	3 to 1	3
Kansas	74/26	-	>2.5 to 1	9
Nebraska	68/32	-	>2 to 1	5
Colorado	67/32	-	>2 to 1	9
Georgia	66/31	2	>2 to 1	15
South Carolina	55/27	18	2 to 1	8
North Dakota	61/37	1	>1.5 to 1	3
Louisiana	57/36	-	>1.5 to 1	9
Utah	57/39	3	1.5 to 1	5
Alabama	56/42	1	1.3 to 1	9
Iowa	38/29	30	1.25 to 1	7
Missouri	49/48	2	1 to 1	11
New Mexico	48/49	2	1 to 1	5
Nevada	45/51	4	1 to 1	5
Arizona	42/51	5	1 to 1.25	10
Tennessee	41/54	4	1 to 1.25	11
Oklahoma	31/55	10	<1 to 1.5	7
Arkansas	27/69	2	<1 to 2.5	6
Why is this table important? Because of the 2004 electoral map, which identified red (for Bush) and blue (for Kerry) states. By definition, John Kerry won every blue state that Clinton has won in the primaries, plus those that Obama has won. But he didn’t win the general election. In order to win the general election, any Democratic nominee must win red states. Here is a second table comparing the electoral votes of the red states that Obama has won in the primaries with those of the red states that Clinton has won. The second line compares the totals of electoral votes of red states won by a 2-to-1 or greater margin. The third column shows Clinton’s deficits in electoral votes.
		Obama Electoral Votes	Clinton Electoral Votes	Clinton EV Deficit
All red states won		97	44	53
Won by 2-to-1 or greater		53	6	47
As John Kerry proved to our chagrin, Democrats need some red states to win. But polls suggest that at least some of those red states are already purple and likely to swing blue. Who is more likely to capture red states in a general election? Is it the Dem who won them by a small margin even among Democrats? Or is it the Dem who won them by a landslide in primaries or caucuses, showing both extraordinary enthusiasm among supporters and the ability to attract new voters, independents, and even some Republicans? As the blue part of the first table above grows (and it will!), the advantages of nominating Obama will dawn on both Democratic voters and Super Delegates. permalink