# Are there any big rivalries between US states? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167 "2013-01-05T16:18:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/41 "2013-01-06T02:32:24Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > Minnesota and Wisconsin have a rivalry as well. The rivalry between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers (of NFL football) is huge. There is also a huge rivalry between the University of Minnesota Gophers and the University of Wisconsin Badgers, especially in football. Having worked with both Wisconsin and Minnesota National Guardsmen, they don’t get along outside of football. ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/42 "2013-01-06T03:37:31Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Kansas, by contrast, is the nation’s red-headed-step-child, the Rodney Dangerfield of America. The rest of the country wipes its nethers with Kansas. You’re from Misery, huh? 😉 To the OP: While mostly good natured and not taken too seriously like most of the examples given, there are some people on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border who still harbor honest-to-goodness antipathy–even hate–for the other state and its residents. Most wiki pages on [sports rivalries](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_War_%28Kansas_vs_Missouri%29) don’t begin with a history of pro-/anti-slavery conflicts. Nor are many named after such an [infamous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_Kansas) period. ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/43 "2013-01-06T03:58:39Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > I see mostly moral and ethical rivalries. Kansas vs. the nation abortion and women’s rights. I know that I despair of my state and its sometimes paleolithic attitudes, so I can’t be indignant about your perception. But I am curious, why do you have this perception of Kansas? Kansas falls pretty squarely in the middle of the pack on abortion restrictions (for instance, requiring the notification of one parent instead of both and not requiring consent of either [for minors]). Two of our last four elected governors have been women. Of course we’re currently in the thrall of the tea party craze, but that hardly makes us unique. So what accounts for your perception of Kansas as exceptional, may I ask? ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/44 "2013-01-06T04:15:37Z")
Nobody hates Iowa. Very few would intentionally live there, but they mind their own business and have good manners at the dinner table. Hawaii also seems to be free of controversy owing to the fact that it’s in the middle of the ocean and the girls don’t wear a lot of clothing. PS: Texans are jerks. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/45 "2013-01-06T04:51:29Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Huge stereotype here: > > Everybody who doesn’t live in California hates California. > Everybody who doesn’t live in Texas hates Texas. > Everybody who doesn’t live in New York hates New York. > > Most people don’t have strong opinions about any other state they don’t live in. Yeah, that’s probably true. There is a sort of regional North-South divide, made more complex by the fact that Appalachia (in the middle but lumped with the South) is culturally different from the lowlands to _its_ south. Wyoming is largely park and preserve. The few people who live there can be a little snotty about tourists who come up from Colorado. And of course Delaware has been [suggested](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=35621) not actually to exist. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/46 "2013-01-06T05:05:41Z")
I should have read more of the thread before posting. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > Which state doesn’t do this? Isn’t that why Kentucky and West Virginia exist? Well, yes. But in Missouri, we like to pretend that the real hillbillies are in Arkansas. It’s not a rivalry; that would require considering Arkansas to be worthy of some respect. Of course, Missourians can’t agree on whether we’re in the North or the South, so that’s a wrinkle. I suppose we get the scorn from the Yankee states to our north, west, and east, and pile on the Arkies to our south. Oh, and Rhode Island has a perfectly respectable size, it’s just mostly underwater. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/47 "2013-01-06T05:07:28Z")
California and Arizona got into a legislative tiff when CA chose to reduce some official travel to AZ because of Arizona’s illegal immigration law. It was a minor boycott of doing business there; Arizonans joshed about cutting off California’s electric power, which flows through (or from?) AZ. In California, everyone hates everyone who lives closer to Los Angeles than they do. Thus, all of Northern CA hates all of Southern CA. SF hates, say, Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara hates the San Fernando Valley. The Valley hates Hollywood, and so on. We’ve isolated the center of hatred to Signal Hill. (Which well deserves it.) (i.e., an Arizona law regarding illegal immigrations, not an “illegal law” passed by AZ. Sorry.) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/48 "2013-01-06T05:17:34Z")
The more populous, educated, and financially successful part of Virginia is referred to as “Northern Virginia.” This part of the state is largely Democratic and Liberal, and hates the ignorant backwater sunsabichiz in SouthWestern Virginia who swipe all our tax money and use it to support their incredibly stupid ideas. The people of South-Western Virginia would tell you that they hate the Godless, self-centered, beltway bandits of Northern Virginia who are trying to steal their State and destroy everything it represents. Also Texas is so full of itself that it thinks we all waste time and energy hating it. California thinks that it is just carrying the rest of us on it’s back and would do quite nicely on it’s own, thank you. And I don’t relaly know the geography of it, but there are a whole lot of folks down the water cycle from Colorado who are well and rightfully ticked off at CO. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/49 "2013-01-06T05:48:17Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > And I don’t relaly know the geography of it, but there are a whole lot of folks down the water cycle from Colorado who are well and rightfully ticked off at CO. To describe water rights in the West would take a lot more time than any of us has. But suffice it to say there isn’t enough water, and what there is, is vastly over-subscribed. Legally Colorado is screwed, regarding the water that flows east out of the state. As the senior right holders tend to be down stream. But practically because the water falls in CO and then flows out, right holders in CO tend to take their crack at it and then blame someone or something else when not enough water flows out. The legal wrangling has gone on for at least a century and seems likely to continue. On the west side, CO doesn’t take nearly their legal share. There California and Arizona are the big villains. Someday one of these silly plans like the Big Straw or the Flaming Gorge pipleline are actually going to go forward and we’ll hear howls from from the lower Colorado River states and Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/50 "2013-01-06T06:53:47Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > California and Arizona got into a legislative tiff when CA chose to reduce some official travel to AZ because of Arizona’s illegal immigration law. It was a minor boycott of doing business there; Arizonans joshed about cutting off California’s electric power, which flows through (or from?) AZ. > > In California, everyone hates everyone who lives closer to Los Angeles than they do. Thus, all of Northern CA hates all of Southern CA. SF hates, say, Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara hates the San Fernando Valley. The Valley hates Hollywood, and so on. > > We’ve isolated the center of hatred to Signal Hill. (Which well deserves it.) > > (i.e., an Arizona law regarding illegal immigrations, not an “illegal law” passed by AZ. Sorry.) I don’t think this is actually true, I have never heard of any animosity against Santa Barbara or SLO from people here in the Bay Area. I lived the first half of my life in Long Beach/Orange County and the second half in the east bay of Northern California, so I’ve seen both sides of this. People in the bay area do indeed have an inferiority complex and do dislike Southern California greatly. On the other hand, people in SoCal think Northern California is a nice place to vacation. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/51 "2013-01-06T08:27:28Z")
Arkansas thinks whatever college football team is playing it that week is one of their rivals. The other state is usually unaware. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/52 "2013-01-06T10:38:07Z")
Delaware has intra-state rivalries: the nobs in Greenville who actually wanted to secede and create their own gated county in Northern Delaware when I was a kid, and then the divide that is the canal – civilsed northern Delaware vs Slower Delaware (southern two counties) south of the C & D. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/53 "2013-01-06T11:04:11Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > There are also the states that you tell jokes about. I’ve lived in Montana, where they tell North Dakota jokes (most of which I found later in an old paperback book of Polack jokes), and in Minnesota, they tell Iowa jokes. No idea if those rivalries go the other way. From here in Minnesota, I asked a from Iowa that. He said they tell the same jokes\*, but about Missouri. Presumably Missourians tell them about Arkansas. (I don’t know what happens when they get to Louisiana – do they tell these jokes about the workers on oil platforms in the gulf?) - Did you hear about the terrible fire at the University of Iowa? Burned the Library to the ground. … Both books were destroyed. … And one of them hadn’t even been colored in yet. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/54 "2013-01-06T14:17:10Z")
> [@Bartman](#): > > To describe water rights in the West would take a lot more time than any of us has. But suffice it to say there isn’t enough water, and what there is, is vastly over-subscribed. > . . . Well yes, but those are normal population growth stresses, and not really a clear fault to Colorado at all IMO. I was referring to mines in Colorado poisoning what water there is. [http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS\_\_REALTY\_\_AND\_RESOURCE\_PROTECTION\_/aml/aml\_strategic\_plan.Par.71847.File.dat/AMLStrategicPlan%20Colorado.pdf](http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS __REALTY__ AND_RESOURCE_PROTECTION_/aml/aml_strategic_plan.Par.71847.File.dat/AMLStrategicPlan%20Colorado.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/55 "2013-01-06T14:58:04Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > Nobody hates Iowa. Very few would intentionally live there, but they mind their own business and have good manners at the dinner table. So Iowa is the US’s own Canada? ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/56 "2013-01-06T18:11:23Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Well yes, but those are normal population growth stresses, and not really a clear fault to Colorado at all IMO. I was referring to mines in Colorado poisoning what water there is. [http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS\_\_REALTY\_\_AND\_RESOURCE\_PROTECTION\_/aml/aml\_strategic\_plan.Par.71847.File.dat/AMLStrategicPlan%20Colorado.pdf](http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS __REALTY__ AND_RESOURCE_PROTECTION_/aml/aml_strategic_plan.Par.71847.File.dat/AMLStrategicPlan%20Colorado.pdf) Ah… but I wasn’t aware that was getting a lot of press in the downstream states. In Colorado that only seems to get press in the communities near the mines. And I certainly hadn’t heard anyone choosing that as a reason to hate Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/57 "2013-01-06T18:58:56Z")
There used to be a great rivalry along the Mason-Dixon line, and nowadays there’s the notorius North vs. South Dakota rivalry. And there’s the “don’t tread on me” sentiment of Oregon’s “visit but don’t stay” motto which Californians have largely ignored. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/58 "2013-01-06T19:39:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by chappachula > 5) nobody hates Delaware, because it doesn’t exist > [@sahirrnee](#): > > Delaware = sand fleas and chicken shit. okay, so maybe Delaware actually does exist, and has fleas and chicken shit. But do you _hate_ it? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/59 "2013-01-06T20:50:27Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > okay, so maybe Delaware actually does exist, and has fleas and chicken shit. But do you _hate_ it? > 🙂 I did for a while. Years ago my bf of the time move there to escape some legal issues in MD. I guess that wasn’t Delaware’s fault but I hated the damn drive. Most people in DE can’t drive for shit and I swear the only source of income for the small towns is speeding tickets. The legal system was pretty down home and friendly though. The ex got in trouble there too. ---
**Author:** ![romadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@romadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romadea)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167/60 "2013-01-06T22:04:39Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > New York and New Jersey are long time rivals. Basically, Jersey is considered a low rent suburb of New York. Saying we are rivals suggests that there’s actual competition… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-big-rivalries-between-us-states/646167.md?page=4)