How important is it what state presidential hopefuls come from? What state has the most presidents having come from it? Does the state being larger have a better chance ? thank you
1 - depends who you talk to. A candidate from a large state will theoretically have an advantage stemming from being very likely to carry that state. In practice, many presidential hopefuls and presidents have been from small states. Clinton was from Arkansas. And candidates don’t always carry their home state anyway. Gore lost Tennessee.
2 - Ohio usually claims the honor, though you can dispute it depending on how you define “came from”.
3 - Only in that there are obviously more people in it who might be presidential candidates. However, since presidential candidates are usually either senators or state governors, each state has the same number of those.
What’s with the green?
I just thought it would look nice (the green).
I thought Virginia had the most.
How many presidents didn’t carry their state?
William Henry Harrison is claimed both by Virginia (where he was born) and Ohio (where he lived during his political career). So both states claim to have eight presidents. Considering that Harrison was president for only about a month before dying from pneumonia, it’s not really a very important argument.
Virginia is one of the ones that can dispute the title depending on how you count it (birthplaces? residency at time of election? where they grew up?). When Ohio makes the claim, they usually count 8 presidents - here:
http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products/ohiodefined/presidents.htm
You will notice that William Henry Harrison was born in Virginia, though, and it’s stretching it to claim Benjamin Harrison since he was a senator from Indiana at the time of his election. By what I consider “home state”, I’ll give them 7.
I cannot think, offhand, of a presidential candidate who won without carrying their home state (in recent times, Gore and McGovern both lost their home states). Somebody else may care to try to dig up the statistics.
If we go by birth state, then Lincoln won without carrying Kentucky. Best I can find so far.
If you go buy the state that the Electoral College considered the candidate be from at the time of the election, the last president to win election without carrying his home state was Richard Nixon in 1968. Nixon was considered to be a New Yorker in 1968 and 1972. Humphrey won New York in 1968.
Nixon was considered to be from California in 1952, 1956, and 1960 however.
In 1916 Wilson (a Virginian by birth, but a New Jersey resident) didn’t win the Garden State. He did in 1912.
Then you have to go back to 1844 when James Polk of Tennessee didn’t win Tennessee (Henry Clay did).
Other than that, no one has lost their home state and won the presidency, although Al Gore gave it a good shot.
The last president who didn’t win his state was Jerry Ford (R-MI).
Granted, he didn’t get voted into office.
Happy
GHW Bush could count Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, and Texas as home states. That may be the record.
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Tyler were all born, raised, and lived here in VA. Wm. Henry Harrison, like Tyler, was born in Charles City County, but spent most of his adult life in the Northwest Territories and lived in Vincennes, IN (IIRC). Taylor was born in Orange County, but raised in Kentucky. I think he lived in Louisiana at the time of his election. Wilson’s father was a Presbyterian minister in Staunton, VA, but Wilson spent his adult life in NJ, as President of Princeton and Governor of NJ.
VA wins on birth locations.
IIRC – and I don’t as much as I used to – Nixon ran as a New York resident in 1960, but as a California resident (his actual home state) in both 1968 and 1972.
While it is true Nixon was considered a New Yorker when he ran in 1960, but he had moved to California by 1968 (he had moved back to run for Governor of California in 1962, back when that meant something. 
) Ironically, when Nixon ran in 1968, it marked the first time in the 20th century that a major party candidate for president or VP didn’t come from New York.
Depends on what you mean by “home.” Albert Arnold Gore Jr. was born and lived most of his life in Washington, DC. In the 2000 election, Gore easily carried DC, an area in which GWB received something on the order of half a dozen votes.
According to the National Archives, who keeps the official records of the Electoral College, Nixon’s votes in 1968 and 1972 are credited to “Richard M. Nixon of New York”
In 1952, 1956, and 1960 his votes are credited to “Richard M Nixon of California”