Most Conservative States 2016: A Closer Look

Below is a detailed analysis of the New Revere Daily Press’ rankings for the nation’s most conservative states. The rankings were determined by evaluating a variety of factors, including election results, tax burden, and personal/business freedom (or lack of personal/business freedom).

The personal/business freedom score accounted for 50 percent of the total weighted score. In order to determine the personal/business freedom score, we used a number of measures provided by the Cato Institute’s 2016 Freedom in the 50 States report, which can be found here. We did exclude a number of measures in that report, some because of redundancy and others because we felt they were poor measures. For instance, we did not use Cato’s “marriage freedom” score because it is our believe the government should have no role in marriage at all.

The tax burden part of our score accounted for 25 percent of the total score. We relied on WalletHub’s excellent ranking of total tax burden to create our own scores. WalletHub created its rankings by examining property taxes, individual income tax rates, and total sales and gross receipts tax rates. You can read Wallethub’s 2016 ratings here.

The final component (also 25%) of our score is 2012 presidential election results. States that had the most voters for Barack Obama were ranked the lowest. States with the fewest Obama voters were ranked highest. We chose not to use the 2016 election results because of the unique nature of that election. In 2016, many red states voted at higher rates for Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton than usual, and many blue states, notably Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, voted for Republican Donald Trump. We believe because this election was so unique, it would skew our results to use the 2016 results in our final analysis.

PHOTO: Grave Creek in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. Photo by Thomas and Diane Jones.

State Conservatism Rankings

Ranking	State	Total Points
1	Oklahoma	190
2	Alaska	178
3	South Dakota	178
4	Tennessee	177
5	Idaho	174
6	New Hampshire	167
7	Wyoming	167
8	Florida	156
9	Indiana	144
10	Montana	142
11	North Dakota	142
12	Alabama	140
13	South Carolina	139
14	Colorado	135
15	Utah	135
16	Nevada	133
17	Arizona	132
18	Missouri	132
19	Kansas	128
20	Virginia	123
21	Iowa	122
22	Texas	122
23	Georgia	121
24	North Carolina	120
25	Nebraska	117
26	Arkansas	108
27	Louisiana	104
28	Delaware	97
29	Pennsylvania	97
30	Michigan	91
31	Kentucky	90
32	New Mexico	85
33	West Virginia	85
34	Mississippi	83
35	Washington	82
36	Wisconsin	75
37	Oregon	72
38	Ohio	69
39	Massachusetts	60
40	Minnesota	52
41	Illinois	35
42	Maine	34
43	Maryland	28
44	Rhode Island	27
45	Vermont	27
46	Connecticut	26
47	New Jersey	25
48	California	22
49	Hawaii	9
50	New York	7

WalletHub Tax Burden Rankings

Overall Rank	State	Total Tax Burden
8	Alabama	7.41%
1	Alaska	5.18%
23	Arizona	8.67%
32	Arkansas	9.09%
40	California	9.91%
21	Colorado	8.49%
46	Connecticut	10.91%
2	Delaware	5.91%
7	Florida	7.22%
16	Georgia	8.31%
49	Hawaii	11.86%
13	Idaho	7.87%
41	Illinois	10.19%
35	Indiana	9.18%
34	Iowa	9.15%
37	Kansas	9.32%
25	Kentucky	8.70%
18	Louisiana	8.43%
47	Maine	11.13%
38	Maryland	9.38%
33	Massachusetts	9.10%
29	Michigan	8.82%
45	Minnesota	10.46%
31	Mississippi	9.06%
14	Missouri	7.90%
11	Montana	7.71%
30	Nebraska	9.04%
17	Nevada	8.37%
4	New Hampshire	6.88%
44	New Jersey	10.38%
24	New Mexico	8.67%
50	New York	13.12%
22	North Carolina	8.66%
27	North Dakota	8.78%
39	Ohio	9.48%
6	Oklahoma	6.95%
19	Oregon	8.45%
26	Pennsylvania	8.73%
43	Rhode Island	10.36%
15	South Carolina	8.03%
5	South Dakota	6.94%
3	Tennessee	6.56%
10	Texas	7.67%
28	Utah	8.80%
48	Vermont	11.13%
12	Virginia	7.80%
20	Washington	8.45%
36	West Virginia	9.19%
42	Wisconsin	10.32%
9	Wyoming	7.62%

Customized Cato Institute Freedom Rankings

State	Ranking	Personal Freedom Ranking Points (Rank-51)*(-2)
Alabama	23	56
Alaska	5	92
Arizona	14	74
Arkansas	29	44
California	49	4
Colorado	10	82
Connecticut	45	12
Delaware	31	40
Floria	8	86
Georgia	22	58
Hawaii	48	6
Idaho	7	88
Illinois	44	14
Indiana	3	96
Iowa	9	84
Kansas	16	70
Kentucky	41	20
Louisiana	34	34
Maine	42	18
Maryland	46	10
Massachusetts	33	36
Michigan	24	54
Minnesota	37	28
Mississippi	36	30
Missouri	18	66
Montana	17	68
Nebraska	25	52
Nevada	11	80
New Hampshire	1	100
New Jersey	47	8
New Mexico	30	42
New York	50	2
North Carolina	19	64
North Dakota	12	78
Ohio	35	32
Oklahoma	2	98
Oregon	38	26
Pennsylvania	26	50
Rhode Island	43	16
South Carolina	15	72
South Dakota	4	94
Tennessee	6	90
Texas	28	46
Utah	20	62
Vermont	40	22
Virginia	21	60
Washington	32	38
West Virginia	39	24
Wisconsin	27	48
Wyoming	13	76

2012 Election Results Rankings

State	Ranking	Obama Vote %
Alabama	10	38.4
Alaska	15	41.3
Arizona	21	44.1
Arkansas	6	36.9
California	44	59.3
Colorado	28	51.2
Connecticut	42	58.4
Delaware	43	58.6
Floria	25	50
Georgia	23	45.4
Hawaii	50	70.6
Idaho	3	32.6
Illinois	40	57.3
Indiana	19	43.8
Iowa	30	52.1
Kansas	7	37.8
Kentucky	7	37.8
Louisiana	14	40.6
Maine	39	56
Maryland	46	61.7
Massachusetts	45	60.8
Michigan	36	54.3
Minnesota	33	52.8
Mississippi	18	43.5
Missouri	22	44.3
Montana	17	41.8
Nebraska	7	37.8
Nevada	32	52.3
New Hampshire	31	52.2
New Jersey	41	58
New Mexico	35	52.9
New York	47	62.6
North Carolina	24	48.4
North Dakota	11	38.9
Ohio	26	50.1
Oklahoma	4	33.2
Oregon	37	54.5
Pennsylvania	29	52
Rhode Island	48	62.7
South Carolina	20	44
South Dakota	13	39.9
Tennessee	12	39
Texas	16	41.4
Utah	1	24.9
Vermont	49	67
Virginia	27	50.8
Washington	38	55.8
West Virginia	5	35.5
Wisconsin	33	52.8
Wyoming	2	28