Who are the most influential US political figures from west of the Mississippi?

[slash2k]

Kansas claims Eisenhower, but I’d argue he only marginally fits the OP’s criteria. For all intents and purposes, he left Kansas at the age of 21 (in 1911) to go to West Point, and never returned permanently, choosing to settle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after he retired from active service. He was born and raised here, but his adult life and career was all elsewhere, and mostly not in the western U.S.

[bump]

@slash2k

Kansas claims Eisenhower, but I’d argue he only marginally fits the OP’s criteria. For all intents and purposes, he left Kansas at the age of 21 (in 1911) to go to West Point, and never returned permanently, choosing to settle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after he retired from active service. He was born and raised here, but his adult life and career was all elsewhere, and mostly not in the western U.S.

Well, as an Army officer, I don’t know that he could really claim any one state as his own- he was stationed in TX, GA, MD, PA, WA, Washington DC, Panama and the Phillipines during his Army career, not to mention the 1940-1945 stretch where he wasn’t in any one place for too terribly long.

Then, after WWII, he was president of Columbia for four years, and then was president for 8 years. He retired to Gettysburg, but I’m not sure if PA really has a huge claim on him.

He did grow up in Abilene, KS though, after being born in Denison, TX and moving to Abilene as a 2 year old.

[JohnGalt]

@dtilque

Minnesota: Hubert H Humphrey

And if Minnesota isn’t far enough west, he was born in South Dakota.

[DorkVader]

@Algher

That leaves Nebraska, Kansas, the Dakotas, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Utah, **Idaho **and a few others I am forgetting off the top of my head.

bolding mine Senator Frank Church iirc had some influence in the 70’s

[DorkVader]

totally missed dtilque’s post until well after the edit window…dang it.

[dalej42]

Tom Delay- TX House Majority leader who ran the Republican congress with an iron fist. Far more powerful than Speaker Hastert.

[Hari_Seldon]

@dtilque

I’d say where the political career was spent is more important than the relatively trivial place of birth. Based on that, I’d accept Reagan but reject Obama, who some included above.

Some of the other states,

Oregon:

Mark Hatfield
Tom McCall
Bob Packwood (well, until the scandal)

How could you leave Wayne Morse off the list. He changed Oregon from being solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. It would not surprise me if he influenced WA too.