Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the northeastern corner of the United States. It was the first and eastern-most state in the Midwest admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance. Its U.S. postal abbreviation is OH; its old-style abbreviation is O. Ohio is an Iroquois word meaning "great water." The name refers to the Ohio River that forms its southern border.

Political demographics and history

Politically, Ohio is considered a swing state, although state politics are dominated by Republicans. The mixture of urban and rural areas, and the presence of both large blue-collar industries and significant white-collar commercial districts leads to a balance of conservative and liberal population that (together with the state's 20 electoral votes, more than most swing states) makes the state very important to the outcome of national elections. Ohio was the deciding state in the 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Bush narrowly won the state's 20 electoral votes by a margin of 2 percentage points and 50.8% of the vote. The state supported Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 because of a defection of Republican voters to Ross Perot, but supported Republican George Bush in 2000 and 2004. Ohio was also a deciding factor in the 1948 presidential election when Democrat Harry S. Truman defeated Republican Thomas Dewey (who had won the state four years earlier) and in the 1976 presidential election when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford by a slim margin in Ohio and took the election.

Related Topics:
Swing state - Conservative - Liberal - 2004 - George W. Bush - John Kerry - 1948 - Democrat - Harry S. Truman - Republican - Thomas Dewey - 1976 - Jimmy Carter - Gerald Ford

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Ohio's demographics cause many to consider the state as a microcosm of the nation as a whole. Interestingly, a Republican presidential candidate has never won the White House without winning Ohio, and Ohio has gone to the winner of the election in all but two contests since 1892, backing only losers Thomas E. Dewey in 1944 (Ohio's John Bricker was his running mate) and Richard M. Nixon in 1960. Consequently, the state is very important to the campaigns of both major parties. Ohio had 20 electoral votes in the Electoral College in 2004. (See also U.S. Electoral College.) The most solidly Democratic areas of the state are in the northeast, including Cleveland, Youngstown, and other industrial areas. Specifically, the core of this region includes eight counties stretching east along Lake Erie from Erie county to the Pennsylvania border and south to Mahoning county. Southwestern Ohio is particularly Republican.

Related Topics:
1892 - Thomas E. Dewey - 1944 - John Bricker - Richard M. Nixon - 1960 - Parties - U.S. Electoral College

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Ohio is known as the "Modern Mother of Presidents," having sent eight of its native sons to the White House. Seven of them were Republicans, and the other was a member of the Whig Party.

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See also:

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• Ohio Democratic Party
• Ohio Republican Party