Someone explain New Hampshire's politics to me.

[Music Man]

I like to think of it as reliably blue, much like New England in most recent presidential elections, but further reflection is showing me that it's been more of a swing state than I realize or has a different character than the rest of New England. Clinton won it by fewer than 0.5% last time. Bush carried it in 2000.

Even when other candidates carry it, such as Obama or Kerry, it's never to the degree they'll carry other New England states. I'm curious to know what factors are in play there.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. "live free or die". pretty rural. lots of libertarians, I suspect

I lived there from 1979-1983, in grad school, and did find it pretty odd.

[Wounded Bear]

2. This, I think. Heavy libertarian strain there...

so not big social welfare program support.

[Raven]

3. We are pretty diverse (politically, not racially) up here. NH is

the home of the Free State Movement https://www.fsp.org/ but it also boasts of a pretty healthy liberal to progressive population.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. NH is definitely a swing state - but it used to be reliably GOP.

Like, extremely reliable.

From 1856 to 1992, it voted Republican in all but six elections. That's 28 times it voted for the Republican candidate.

Bill Clinton was the first Democrat to win the state since LBJ in '64.

It has gone Democratic every election since 1992, sans one, Bush's victory in 2000.

It's a lot like Maine in the sense it's very rural. Not like Vermont, though, which was also solidly GOP for a long, long time and also very rural but more associated with environmentalists.

Maine is more solidly Democratic at the national level, but they haven't elected a Democrat to the Senate since George Mitchell retired in 1995.

[AnnaLee]

5. Libertarian with more of a live and let live air

[smirkymonkey]

6. There is no state income tax on earned income, so NH probably attracts a lot of people

who are drawn to having less money deducted from their paychecks, which might account for the fact that they are, in general, somewhat more conservative/libertarian than the other New England states.

They also have duty free liquour stores and they are one of the most gun friendly states in New England. Like someone else said, they probably lean more libertarian than conservative. On the other hand, they are one of the least religious states, only second to Massachusetts in that category.

[JDC]

7. I lived on the NH seacoast for 3.5 of the last 6 years

(Now back in CO).

It is very mixed. LOTS of folks from MA move there because the property tax is considerably less than MA. (It's still high, but less than MA).

During the 2016 election, there were many, Hillary and Planned Parenthood(if you recall it was a big issue then) signs where I was. There were also many Trump signs. Portsmouth and the rest of the seacoast feel more left leaning to me(although John and Chris Sununu both live there). Manchester and Nashua metros likely lean rightish.

Keene maybe leans a little left, Durham (UNH) maybe left, concord a little right. Hanover(Dartmouth) and Lebanon are so close to Vermont, you'd think left, but maybe not. Lakes and north, I'm not too sure, but would guess right.

There's only just over a million people there, so it's pretty sparse once you get north of manchester. Lots of little places where factories once were, now kinda dying off ie GE, Sylvania, etc.