Wyoming and Utah are the most Republican states, while Massachusetts and Maryland rank as the most Democratic, according to new data released by Gallup.
Republicans have an advantage of more than 30 percentage points in Utah and Wyoming, while the Democratic advantage in Massachusetts and Maryland is roughly 20 percentage points.
Idaho, South Dakota and Montana round out the top five most Republican states, while Rhode Island, New York and Vermont round out the Democrat top five, the data show.
Overall, 15 states are solid or leaning Republican and 17 are solid or leaning Democratic. However, 18 were found to be competitive states, a number that has remained fairly consistent since 2011 but moved away from the Democratic Party since 2008.
The results are based on the political party identification and leanings of states’ residents in 2014 — data collected throughout the year via telephone survey.
The survey was done based on a random telephone poll of 177,000 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2014 with a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point.
The list of competitive states, per Gallup:
• Nevada
• Arizona
• Louisiana
• Colorado
• Texas
• Missouri
• Iowa
• Minnesota
• Wisconsin
• Ohio
• Kentucky
• West Virginia
• Virginia
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Florida
