THE GREAT AMERICAN POLITICAL ROADTRIP: RHODE ISLAND

The 2020 Presidential Election in Rhode Island, by town.

Recent political trends in Rhode Island, by county

Be honest. Did you forget about Rhode Island?

“Little Rhodey,” as one of my college friends who grew up there calls it, is the country’s smallest state, but it has more electoral votes than the largest—four to Alaska’s three. (Tell me again why this system makes sense?) Like most locations along the Boston-Washington Megalopolis, Rhode Island is densely populated.

Like other states along the Northeast Coast, Rhode Island is solidly Democratic. It last voted Republican for president in 1984, when Reagan won it by only four points. Only Minnesota, which Reagan lost, and Massachusetts, which Reagan won by less than three points, were closer. No Republican has won a statewide race in Rhode Island since 2006, although former Republican Lincoln Chafee was elected governor in 2010, running as an independent.

Being part of New England, Rhode Island is Democratic because it has many college-educated denizens and working-class, labor-minded residents. At one time, the former was a Republican-leaning constituency that kept the state relatively competitive.

Since 2016, Interstate 95, which bisects Rhode Island, has split the state's political geography.