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 |
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