Coast to coast, L.A. to Chicago
Western male
In my mind, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee are all Appalachian states.
Ohio is kind of a border state, since the eastern half is Appalachian, but once you get past Columbus, it’s all flat and featureless until you hit the far side of Kansas, Nebraska, etc. If you want to say Ohio is a Midwest state because half of it is Midwest, I won’t argue with that.
If it isn’t flat, featureless, and full of corn fields, it isn’t the Midwest. Not in my book, at least.
Oklahoma to me seems Midwest. Otherwise my list is basically the same as all of the 90+ states in the OP’s map.
How anyone could consider PA or WV to be Midwest is beyond me.
Isn’t the whole point of a border to be divisive?
I could maybe see someone from Pittsburgh saying it? But I really don’t know anyone from there, and I’ve never been.
I grew up in Wheeling WV which is only about a 40 minute drive or so to Pittsburgh. I spent a fair amount of time in Pittsburgh (since it was the only major city in the area). Back then it was a steel town, very much part of the Ohio Valley culture, which is more Appalachian than anything else. The “yinzer” culture went as far west as Wheeling, then for some reason immediately stopped at the Ohio River. There was a distinct difference between Wheeling/Pittsburgh culture and Ohio culture.
Columbus, OH had its own distinct culture as well. I wouldn’t really call it Midwest though. Once you got past Columbus though, that’s when you started to see more Midwest influences in the culture. Cincinnati had a lot of Midwest culture, though it also had a lot of the more eastern Ohio influences as well. I had friends in Cincinnati and relatives in Lima (not too far north of Cincinnati). I would call Lima more of a rust belt culture than Midwest.
I still have relatives in Lima, but I haven’t spent much time in western Ohio in the past twenty years though. Things may have changed since then.
I still have relatives in Wheeling and Pittsburgh, and I have spent times in those areas. Pittsburgh isn’t the steel town it used to be, but the culture really hasn’t changed much.
I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life. It’s always been the Midwest, the Crossroads of America. Only in the last few years have I heard Indiana being called part of the Great Lakes Region, and the Plains states being the real Midwest.
Speaking as a Southwestener for most of my life (NM, and arguably Colorado), the Midwest can KEEP Oklahoma. We don’t want it. And socially, it shares a lot more with the Midwest than the Southwest. Although, granted, once you head into the Eastern Colorado Plains, most of it might as well be Kansas, culturally, geographically, and politically. That’s probably a big part of Colorado’s reported 42.1% that thinks of itself Midwest.
The Southwest is only AZ and NM. Colorado is a rocky mountain state.
I live in Montana and have never met anyone who thought they were living in the Midwest. Does the Midwest have the Rocky Mountains running through it? Montana is part of the Western US, as is Hawaii I guess… although Pacific Islanders makes a lot more sense for them.
Hawaii is just Hawaii, same with Alaska. They’re not really anything groupable.
Where’d you grow up?
I’m a Pacific islander.
Which one?
Hawaii.
Why didn’t you just say so!
Colorado is a deeply divided state in terms of cultural identity. As I said, East of the mountains, very much Midwest. Pueblo and south? Very strong Southwest influence. North? Wants to join WYOMING (okay, only a small area, but still).
Personally, I don’t think mountain states as a whole share much if any culture. But it’s a useful geographical distinction, if you like. Many definitions of the Southwest do include at least southern Colorado, and so do many residents, which is why I put in “arguably”.
Sorry, but the Plains states are not the Midwest. Dammit people, know your region.
There is controversy over whether Kentucky should be regarded as southern, but there shouldn’t be. It’s an upper South or Border state, take your pick.
I lived in Ohio for about 20 years. It’s thoroughly Midwestern.
Western Pennsylvania is not exactly Eastern, but it isn’t the Midwest either. Strange people thereabouts.
Maybe I’d add southern Utah. The culture might not be the same, but the terrain fits.
I’ve lived in Ohio for 56 years. I’ve always been told we are part of the Midwest.
IIRC, the original meaning of “Midwest” was the region west of the original 13 colonies, east of the Mississippi, and far enough north to not have been a slave state. Everything west of the Mississippi was “The West”. I assume that’s what you’re getting at with the age thing.
I’d probably at least included Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri in my definition of the Midwest. Not sure about the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas. Probably not Oklahoma.
Fun fact: Supposedly that old definition of The West being everything west of the Mississippi is the reason why an airline based in Minnesota had the name Northwest Airlines. At the time that airline was founded most people still considered Minnesota to be part of “The Northwest”.
Exactly. I personally go with the original definition. The later states past the Mississippi can be and should be called something else.
Realistically, that ship has long since sailed.
Nowadays if it’s between the Rockies and the Appalachians and north of Texas, a lotta people there think it’s part of the Midwest and lotta people from other states will agree with them. IOW, “Midwest” and “central time zone” are not quite synonymous terms, but close. Less the Gulf coast states.
Plus Michigan and Ohio and Indiana, according to the original definition. Less Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Is it safe to say that ‘Midwest’ is more of an arbitrary label than a geographic description?
I think that is the best description. In my mind, those states, with their emphasis on corn and bean farming and (mostly) proximity to the Great Lakes means they share major attributes that the other states - such as the Plains or KY/TN - do not. Similarly, the Plains states share attributes the Big 10 states lack, as do KY/TN.
But all of the shaded states in the OP are “flyover country” to folk on either coast! 
Born and raised in Cleveland. I think of Ohio mostly as “Midwest, I guess?”, mostly because I don’t know what other category to put us in, and partly because, of major cities, Cleveland feels most culturally similar to Chicago, which is definitely Midwest.
The Midwest is definitely Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana, and maybe Ohio, Missouri, and Michigan. North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma are the Plains States (large parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado are also Plains, but they’re more defined by their mountains). Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado, and maybe Utah and Nevada, are The West (no “Mid” to them). Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and maybe Utah and Nevada (if they’re not The West) are the Southwest. Washington, Oregon, and California are the West Coast.
WAG: maybe they live in the southern part of the state, which, IMO, culturally feels more like Kentucky than it feels like the rest of Illinois.