Friday, December 25, 2015

2016 Candidates' Birthplaces

Presidential birth states are an interest of mine.

For example, many people don't know Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Or that all 43 Presidents come from only 21 states.

Virginia leads the pack, with eight Presidents, followed closely by Ohio's seven. Massachusetts and New York each get four. Texas, Vermont, and North Carolina, two.

Some interesting things about the 2016 candidates' birth states:

Hillary Clinton. If Hillary wins she will be the second President born in Illinois, the first having been Ronald Reagan.

Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are from New York. Either one would be the first New Yorker President since FDR. Also of interest - Sanders would then be the only US President to have been born during the twelve years of the Roosevelt administration. (George HW Bush was born in 1924, and Clinton in 1946.) George Pataki, also a New Yorker Presidential hopeful, missed the Roosevelt window by two months.

Martin O'Malley would be the first President since Andrew Jackson not to be born in one of the states of the United States of America. He was born in Washington D.C. and would be the District's first President. Jackson was the last President to be born in the Colonies before the Revolutionary War.

Jeb Bush would be the first Bush from Texas. George HW was born in Massachusetts, and George W in Connecticut. Carly Fiorina is also from Texas, and she or Jeb would be the first Texan since LBJ.

Ben Carson would be the first President from Michigan, Marco Rubio the first from Florida. Michigan is one of nine states that has had a major party candidate, but never won a Presidential election. (From Michigan neither Mitt Romney nor Thomas Dewey became President.) Those other eight states are Maine (Rufus King lost to James Monroe), West Virginia (John Davis lost to Calvin Coolidge), Indiana (Wendell Willkie lost to FDR), Arizona (Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson), Minnesota (Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan), Kansas (Bob Dole lost to Bill Clinton), and Colorado (John Kerry lost to George W Bush).

John Kasich (apparently a person) would be the first President from Pennsylvania since James Buchanan, who currently is the only President from that state. Unless Rand Paul, born in Pittsburgh, took the title instead.

Chris Christie would be the second President from New Jersey, the first being Grover Cleveland. Woodrow Wilson, associated with that state, was actually born in Virginia. Speaking of which, Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore are both from that state. Each would have the chance to be the first Virginian President since Wilson.

Mike Huckabee, would be the second President from Arkansas, after Bill Clinton. They were both born in the same town, of Hope.

Ted Cruz would be the first President, ever, in a foreign country. He was born in Alberta, Canada.

Ted Cruz is also the second-youngest candidate, after Marco Rubio. Both would be the first Presidents born in the 1970s. So far no US President was born in the 1950s, but many candidates could change that: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, and Rick Santorum were all born in that decade.

Also Obama is the only President born in a US capital, Honolulu. Jim Gilmore or Carly Fiorina could change that - or Martin O'Malley, sort of.

To be fair, Rufus King was born in what was, at the time, Massachusetts, and only later became Maine. But Maine's a nice state, so we'll give them Rufus.

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