Small States Are Evenly Divided in Presidential Elections

Contrary to myth, the small states are not predominantly Republican in presidential elections. 

In fact, they are evenly divided.

In seven of the eight presidential elections between 1992 and 2020, the 13 smallest states (i.e., those with three or four electoral votes) were almost equally divided politically in presidential elections. In fact, a slight majority of them went Democratic.

Moreover, these small states gave a majority of their electoral votes to the Democrats in the seven of the eight presidential elections between 1992 and 2020.

The small states are generally very consistent in terms of which party receives their electoral votes. The only two exceptions in recent years were the result of third-party candidacies.

● Montana is the only one of the Republican states that did not vote Republican in all eight presidential elections between 1992 and 2020. It went for Bill Clinton in 1992 when Ross Perot divided the vote in the state.

● New Hampshire is the only one of the Democratic states that did not vote Democratic in all eight presidential elections between 1992 and 2020. It went for George H.W. Bush in 2000 when Ralph Nader divided the vote in the state.

After the 2020 census, West Virginia ended up with four electoral votes—thus increasing the number of small states from 13 to 14.

West Virginia has voted Republican in recent presidential elections.

Thus, in the 2024 election, there were seven Republican and seven Democratic small states.