Though U.S. politicians regularly champion America as having a democratic society, it’s not quite that simple. As Al Gore well knows, one doesn’t ascend to the presidency by simply attaining the most votes.
Instead, the Electoral College system emphasizes capturing the majority of votes in individual states.
Larger states like California and Texas have the most power in terms of numbers, but states with more evenly split ideologies like Ohio and Virginia often make the difference between which candidate will move into the White House.
So in choosing a candidate to represent their parties, both Republicans and Democrats often consider which states each candidate is politically tied to.
Is it better to assure a victory in a larger state, or gain an edge in a possible “swing” state?
It turns out there’s been a mix of both cases throughout U.S. history. In fact, the five states that have produced the most presidents comprise a mixture of hugely populous states and smaller ones that prove critical in the balloting.
InsideGov tallied up the states that have produced the most presidents. You can click on the button below to skip straight to the rankings, or peruse the methodology before jumping in.
When there was a tie between multiple states, we used three tiebreakers:
1. The amount of vice presidents each state produced.
2. The amount of 2016 presidential candidates each state can claim.
3. The average historical ranking of the president(s) from each state, according to the 2015 poll of the American Political Science Association.
Note: These are the states the presidents were politically affiliated with, not necessarily the ones where they were born.
Key Takeaways:
- Most Presidents by State: New York leads with six presidents, showcasing its significant political influence historically.
- Close Contenders: Ohio ties for the lead with six presidents, highlighting its crucial role as a swing state, while Virginia follows with five, emphasizing its early foundational impact.
- Notable Mentions: Other states with notable contributions include Massachusetts with four presidents and Texas and Illinois each producing three, reflecting diverse regional influences on presidential politics.
#19. New Hampshire
Presidents: 1 (Franklin Pierce)
Vice Presidents: 0
2016 Candidates: 0
Pierce was born in New Hampshire and represented the state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate for a total of nine years. What sparked his successful presidential campaign, however, was his role as a brigadier general in the Mexican-American War.
#18. Georgia
Presidents: 1 (Jimmy Carter)
Vice Presidents: 0
2016 Candidates: 0
Carter’s “aw, shucks” demeanor and political inexperience appealed to an American population that tired of corruption following the Watergate scandal. Carter had only eight years of political service (four as Georgia governor, four as a Gerogia Senate member) before being voted into the White House in 1977.
#17. Louisiana
Presidents: 1 (Zachary Taylor)
Vice Presidents: 0
2016 Candidates: 1 (Bobby Jindal)
As a U.S. Army major general, Taylor defended Louisiana during the Mexican-American War and earned national hero status. He rode that wave of popularity into the White House despite no political experience and relatively unknown beliefs.
#16. Arkansas
Presidents: 1 (Bill Clinton)
Vice Presidents: 0
2016 Candidates: 1 (Mike Huckabee)
Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas, and had two stints as the state’s governor spanning 12 years before becoming the president.
#15. Iowa
Presidents: 1 (Herbert Hoover)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Henry A. Wallace)
2016 Candidates: 0
Some people link Hoover with California, where he was part of the first class at Stanford University. However, he was born and mostly grew up in Iowa. Hoover doesn’t have a state to be politically tied to, since his role as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce was his first and only political job before he became president.
#14. Michigan
Presidents: 1 (Gerald Ford)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Ford)
2016 Candidates: 0
Born in Nebraska, Ford moved with his mother to Michigan as a child and later became a star football player for the University of Michigan, winning two national titles.
Ford would later return to his home state to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 25 years. He was then appointed as Richard Nixon’s vice president following the death of Nixon’s running mate, Spiro Agnew, and ascended to the presidency following the Watergate scandal.
#13. Kansas
Presidents: 1 (Dwight Eisenhower)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Charles Curtis)
2016 Candidates: 0
Eisenhower was born in Texas, but raised in Kansas before attending West Point and serving as a U.S. General in World War II. Following the war, he served as the president of Columbia University for five years before entering politics and winning the 1952 election in a landslide.
#12. Missouri
Presidents: 1 (Harry Truman)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Truman)
2016 Candidates: 0
Truman was born and raised in Missouri, where he also served as a U.S. Senator for 10 years. He was then chosen as FDR’s final running mate, and ascended to the presidency less than three months into his tenure after Roosevelt’s death.
#11. Pennsylvania
Presidents: 1 (James Buchanan)
Vice Presidents: 1 (George M. Dallas)
2016 Candidates: 1 (Rick Santorum)
Buchanan was ranked dead last in the latest APSA survey due to his utterly horrible management of pre-Civil War tensions. Not the greatest representation of Pennsylvania, home of the Liberty Bell.
#10. New Jersey
Presidents: 1 (Woodrow Wilson)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Garret Hobart)
2016 Candidates: 1 (Chris Christie)
Woodrow Wilson ascended to the presidency after benefiting from a split in the Republican Party caused by his two rivals, William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.
Nevertheless, he is regarded as a top-10 president by the APSA due to his deft handling of World War I.
#9. Indiana
Presidents: 1 (Benjamin Harrison)
Vice Presidents: 5 (Schulyer Colfax, Thomas Hendricks, Charles Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall, Dan Quayle)
2016 Candidates: 0
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S President, was the grandson of 9th U.S. President William Henry Harrison. Indiana’s five vice presidents are the second-most of any state.
#8. California
Presidents: 2 (Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan)
Vice Presidents: 1 (Nixon)
2016 Candidates: 1 (Carly Fiorina)
Despite being a traditionally blue state, California’s two presidents represented the GOP.
#7. Tennessee
Presidents: 3 (Andrew Johnson, James K. Polk, Andrew Jackson)
Vice Presidents: 2 (Johnson, Al Gore)
2016 Candidates: 0
Tennessee produced three presidents between 1829-1865, although none of the trio are truly revered. Though Jackson placed in the top 10 of the 2015 APSE survey, he’s also responsible for the infamous Trail of Tears.
#6. Illinois
Presidents: 3 (Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, Barack Obama)
Vice Presidents: 2 (Adlai Stevenson, Charles Dawes)
2016 Candidates: 0
Illinois has had a quietly huge impact on U.S. history. In addition to birthing the consensus greatest president in Abraham Lincoln, it also gave us the victorious Civil War general Ulysses Grant and the first African-American president in Barack Obama.
#5. Texas
Presidents: 3 (Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush)
Vice Presidents: 3 (John Nance Garner, Johnson, Bush)
2016 Candidates: 2 (Ted Cruz, Rick Perry)
Texas has only recently made its presence felt in the White House, with three of the last nine presidents coming from the Longhorn State. Interestingly enough, if Jeb Bush were to win the presidency in 2016, he would be affiliated with Florida instead of the state he grew up in.
#4. Massachusetts
Presidents: 4 (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Calvin Coolidge, John F. Kennedy)
Vice Presidents: 4 (Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Henry Wilson, Coolidge)
2016 Candidates: 1 (Jill Stein)
One of the most historically relevant states in our union, it’s no shock that four presidents have been associated with Massachusetts.
#3. Virginia
Presidents: 5 (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler)
Vice Presidents: 2 (Jefferson, Tyler)
2016 Candidates: 2 (Jim Webb, Jim Gilmore)
Five of the first 10 U.S. presidents were primarily associated with Virginia — none more than Thomas Jefferson, who founded the University of Virginia. However, the state hasn’t produced a president since John Tyler, whose term ended in 1845.
#2. Ohio
Presidents: 6 (William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding)
Vice Presidents: 0
2016 Candidates: 1 (John Kasich)
Ohio is always regarded as an important “swing state” in the presidential race. Still, it’s surprising that its produced six presidents, tied for the most in history.
It’s also interesting that none of the six are particularly well-regarded. Taft (20th) and McKinley (21st) are the highest-ranked of the bunch, according to a 2015 poll of the American Political Science Association.
#1. New York
Presidents: 6 (Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Vice Presidents: 11 (Aaron Burr, George Clinton, Daniel Tompkins, Van Buren, Fillmore, William Wheeler, Arthur, Levi P. Morton, Roosevelt, James S. Sherman, Nelson Rockefeller)
2016 Candidates: 3 (Hillary Clinton, George Pataki, Donald Trump)
In addition to the six presidents New York has been affiliated with, the state has produced a whopping 11 vice presidents, six more than the next closest (Indiana).
With the current favorites for both the Republican (Trump) and Democratic (Clinton) nominations both calling the Empire State home, New York looks poised to extend its illustrious history in the executive branch in 2016.