# Has a U.S President ever lost his home state yet still won the election?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 6, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765 "2008-10-06T23:50:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/1 "2008-10-06T23:50:45Z")
Has it ever happened?
---
### Author:  [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/2 "2008-10-06T23:53:08Z")
> **[List of major-party United States presidential candidates who lost their home state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major-party_United_States_presidential_candidates_who_lost_their_home_state)**
>
> Below is a list of major party United States presidential candidates who lost their birth or resident states. While many successful candidates have won the presidency without winning their birth state, only four (James K. Polk, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump) have won election despite losing their state of residence. Nixon, a lifelong Californian, had taken residence in New York after his failed run for governor of California, but later switched back during his presidency and ahe...
Most recently Nixon if you are thinking of the Resident State.
---
### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/3 "2008-10-07T00:30:36Z")
Nixon became a corporate lawyer in New York after losing the California gubernatorial election in 1962, and lived at Manhattan’s Hotel Pierre for 5 or six years after that. But nobody in New York regarded him as one of their own.
---
### Author:  [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/4 "2008-10-07T01:14:49Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Nixon became a corporate lawyer in New York after losing the California gubernatorial election in 1962, and lived at Manhattan’s Hotel Pierre for 5 or six years after that. But nobody in New York regarded him as one of their own.
Who did claim Mr Nixon?😉
(As you know, I think the OP was asking about legal residence; not “son of” status)
---
### Author:  [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/5 "2008-10-07T01:30:50Z")
[rabid liberal]Al Gore in 2000.[/rabid liberal]
😛
---
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/6 "2008-10-07T02:09:47Z")
He actually carried his “home” “state.” Born, raised, and educated in DC.
---
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/7 "2008-10-07T02:46:00Z")
I believe that for these purposes, “home state” means the state that the candidate himself or herself claims for the purposes of the election. Thus, Gore’s home state was Tennessee. I always thought that Nixon’s home state was California, but [http://uselectionatlas.org/](http://uselectionatlas.org/) seems to say that it was New York.
---
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2008, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/8 "2008-10-08T03:36:04Z")
Well Reagan grew up in Illinois but was solidly identified with California, so I think the OP needs to be more specific. How about the state the candidate declared as his residence in the election (for example which state did he vote in during the election he ran for president)
---
### Author:  [@DoubleJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoubleJ)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/9 "2008-10-08T13:44:25Z")
Yeah, we need to know if by “home” you mean “officially lived there at the time of the election” or “born there”. George H.W. Bush, for instance, was born in Massachusettes and lost it in both the 1988 and 1992 elections. If you consider Texas to be his home state, as Wikipedia does, he won it in both elections.
---
### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-u-s-president-ever-lost-his-home-state-yet-still-won-the-election/466765/10 "2008-10-08T13:55:44Z")
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson carried the state that he was born in (Virginia), but lost his state of residence (New Jersey). So the answer to the OP is, Yes.