Presidents by State
If you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere…
Could the fact that he was born in Queens be a kingmaker for Donald Trump? Or that Hillary lives in Chappaqua boost her chances to reign over the U.S.?
While more U.S. presidents have been born in Virginia, at eight (which includes the unelected John Taylor, a veep who served out Millard Fillmore’s term), when analyzing the states which with our commanders in chief are “affiliated,” New York has the biggest piece of the pie, with seven as of this writing.
Trump is certainly more identified with the city, possessed of what some call “New York swagger” (others, smug arrogance). He’s been compared to that brash icon of Gotham, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, is imbued with the jazzy abstraction of the streets, and clearly possessed of the aspirational overtones of Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby. Like the great metropolis Trump has proven himself capable of steamrolling anything that gets in the way of his progress.
The Clintons in 1999 purchased a $1.7 million home in upstate N.Y., laying the groundwork for Hillary’s senatorial bid. Though some accused her of carpetbagging, she managed to absorb enough je nais sais Chappaqua to qualify as a naturalized state-of-New-Yorker, and served as the state’s junior senator from 2001 to 2009.
The American success of these two would be impressive in any state, but is certainly more so in New York. That it winds out of the largest U.S. city (population 8.2 million) – with bragging rights to everything from the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere (One World Trade Center, at 1,776-feet) to the highest price for art at auction ($179.4 million for Picasso’s “Women of Algiers,” sold by Christie’s in May of 2015) to the world’s largest Applebees (50th and Broadway). It’s larger than life.
In terms of election cycles, New York’s squeak to the finish line is claimed through sleight of way – Grover Cleveland is counted twice, having lived in the state when propelled to two, non-consecutive terms (New York overreach? Perhaps, but the upward-striving gymnastics entirely befit the city, and its two latest campaigners. Trump used steel beams to impose his vision on the shape of the city. Clinton imprinted hers through grit and personal mettle.
NYC lays claim to the fact that residents live some two years longer than the national average, according to an article in Time Out NY, “50 Reasons Why NY Is the Greatest City in the World”: “In 2010, a New Yorker’s life expectancy at birth topped out at 80.9 years. Maybe it’s that after surviving the job hunt, the apartment search and calorie-count menus, the rest seems easy.” Now they can add surviving the 2016 presidential run to that list!
A list of US Presidents including the state with which each was primarily affiliated, due to residence, professional career, and electoral history. This is not necessarily the state in which the president was born. (Source: Wikipedia) New York leads as state of affiliation, with 7, followed by Ohio with 6, and Virginia with 5. Among birth states, Virginia leads with 8, followed by Ohio with 7, and NY and Massachusetts with 4 each. (Editor’s note: This chart was updated on Nov. 9, 2016, to reflect Trump’s win, bringing New York’s total to 8.)
| President | State of Affiliation | State of Birth | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington | Virginia | Virginia |
| 2 | John Adams | Massachusetts | Massachusetts |
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | Virginia | Virginia |
| 4 | James Madison | Virginia | Virginia |
| 5 | James Monroe | Virginia | Virginia |
| 6 | John Quincy Adams | Massachusetts | Massachusetts |
| 7 | Andrew Jackson | Tennessee | North/South Carolina* |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | New York | New York |
| 9 | William Henry Harrison | Ohio | Virginia |
| 10 | John Tyler | Virginia | Virginia |
| 11 | James K. Polk | Tennessee | Tennessee |
| 12 | Zachary Taylor | Louisiana | Virginia |
| 13 | Millard Fillmore | New York | New York |
| 14 | Franklin Pierce | New Hampshire | New Hampshire |
| 15 | James Buchanan | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania |
| 16 | Abraham Lincoln | Illinois | Kentucky |
| 17 | Andrew Johnson | Tennessee | North Carolina |
| 18 | Ulysses S. Grant | Illinois | Ohio |
| 19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | Ohio | Ohio |
| 20 | James Garfield | Ohio | Ohio |
| 21 | Chester A. Arthur | New York | Vermont |
| 22 | Grover Cleveland | New York | New Jersey |
| 23 | Benjamin Harrison | Indiana | Ohio |
| 24 | Grover Cleveland | New York | New Jersey |
| 25 | William McKinley | Ohio | Ohio |
| 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | New York | New York |
| 27 | William Howard Taft | Ohio | Ohio |
| 28 | Woodrow Wilson | New Jersey | Virginia |
| 29 | Warren G. Harding | Ohio | Ohio |
| 30 | Calvin Coolidge | Massachusetts | Vermont |
| 31 | Herbert Hoover | California | Iowa |
| 32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | New York | New York |
| 33 | Harry S. Truman | Missouri | Missouri |
| 34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Kansas | Texas |
| 35 | John F. Kennedy | Massachusetts | Massachusetts |
| 36 | Lyndon Johnson | Texas | Texas |
| 37 | Richard Nixon | California | California |
| 38 | Gerald Ford | Michigan | Nebraska |
| 39 | Jimmy Carter | Georgia | Georgia |
| 40 | Ronald Regan | California | California |
| 41 | George H.W. Bush | Texas | Massachusetts |
| 42 | Bill Clinton | Arkansas | Arkansas |
| 43 | George W. Bush | Texas | Connecticut |
| 44 | Barak Obama | Illinois | Hawaii |
| 45 | Donald J. Trump | New York | New York |