Let me follow up on my post below about voting in New York State. I was just emailing with a reader about how blue New York is, how dominant Democrats are and thus how much the national parties care about voting rates in the state (i.e., not much).
We all know that New York is now a key part of the Democratic electoral bloc. But I remember back in 2012 and 2008 too having a realization of just how blue it is. Probably even bluer than you think.
Here’s an example.
By my count, New York State gave Obama his third highest percentage of any state he won in 2012. Obama won New York by 63.35% to 35.17%, a massive blowout. Only two states gave him a higher margin: Vermont (66.57%) and Hawaii (70.55%). Rhode Island was close at 62.70% and Maryland wasn’t too far behind at 61.97%.
It’s true that there’s a good number of states in the high 50s. But California (60.24%) and Massachusetts (60.65%) were a non-trivial amount behind the New York margin.
Bluer than Massachusetts. That kind of says it all.
Notably, though the margins were closer, New York gave Obama his 3rd highest margin in 2008 too, with the same two states Vermont and Hawaii coming in higher.
Of course, there are other measures. The Democrats had an almost comical run of governor scandals before Cuomo took over. They basically weren’t able to lose the governorship no matter how hard they tried. It’s a pretty damn blue state. Actually one of the bluest in the country. Certainly the biggest big blue state.
