So I was looking at the map below, and after zooming in, I started to notice something. Doesn’t this map look quite a bit like this one? I thought so. So I did a little comparison. I’ve listed below each state, whether it is a soda, pop or Coke state, and whether that state went for Bush or Gore in the 2000 election.

There are some exceptions (which I’ll detail after this list), but for the most part, Coke/pop states went for Bush, and soda states for Gore. It gets weirder. Florida is remarkably undecided about whether it’s a Coke or a soda state. Up and down the panhandle — which went overwhelmingly for Bush — Florida’s all Coke. But hit the Miami, Palm Beach and retirement areas — solid Gore country — and it’s all about soda. Here’s the list (sorry that it’s virtually unreadable — couldn’t format well within the limits of Blogger):

AK Soda Bush
AL Coke Bush
AR Coke Bush
AZ Soda Bush
CA Soda Gore
CO Pop Bush
CT Soda Gore
DC Soda Gore
DE Soda Gore
FL Soda Bush
GA Coke Bush
HI Soda Gore
IA Pop Gore
ID Pop Bush
IL Pop Gore
IN Pop Bush
KS Pop Bush
KY Coke Bush
LA Coke Bush
MA Soda Gore
MD Soda Gore
ME Soda Gore
MI Pop Gore
MN Pop Gore
MO Soda Bush
MS Coke Bush
MT Pop Bush
NC Coke Bush
ND Pop Bush
NE Pop Bush
NH Soda Bush
NJ Soda Gore
NM Coke Gore
NV Soda Bush
NY Soda Gore
OH Pop Bush
OK Coke Bush
OR Pop Gore
PA Soda Gore
RI Soda Gore
SC Coke Bush
TN Coke Bush
TX Coke Bush
Utah Pop Bush
VA Soda Bush
VT Soda Gore
WA Pop Gore
WI Soda Gore
WV Pop Bush
WY Pop Bush

The tallies: Bush won 11 of 12 Coke states, all but New Mexico. He also won 11 of 17 pop states. Of the six “pop” states he lost, all were northern states, most strong in a Lutheran liberal tradition (Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington). On the other side, Gore won 2/3 of the soda states (14 for 21). But a closer look at the 7 soda states Gore lost reveals an even stronger what-you-call-your-carbonated-drinks/political affiliation connection:

Virginia: The map shows Northern Virginia — which went heavily for Gore — to be sound soda country. Dixie Virginia — which carried the state for Bush — is all Coke.

Nevada: Very small sampling. Las Vegas, however, went soda and Gore. The rest of the state went Coke and Bush.

Missouri: Again, liberal metro St. Louis is all soda and all Gore. Rural Missouri is more pop — or Coke in the south — and gave the state to Bush.

New Hampshire: Anomalous. New Hampshire’s easily the least liberal state in New England. Not surprising that it’s voters would drink soda and vote for Bush.

Arizona: Can’t really explain this one. I’m not sure why Arizona is soda country and went for Bush, while next door New Mexico is Coke country and went for Gore. Seems they should be switched.

Alaska: Do they even drink cold beverages up there? Too far from the mainland to make sense of.

Florida: See above. And you can pretty much put Florida in either the Bush or Gore column.

All in all, Bush won 22 of 29 Coke/pop states. Gore won 14 of 21 soda states. And I’d guess that the trend will only get stronger next election.

The most likely states defect to Bush in 2004 are the pop/Gore states — Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon and Washington. Iowa, Oregon and Washington were razor-thin for Gore in 2000, and Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan were considered “battleground” states right up until Election Day.

Likewise, the Democrats could easily pick up a few of the 7 soda/Bush states. Florida and New Hampshire, for sure. But also Virginia as the D.C. suburbs continue to sprawl, and which just elected a Democrat governor. Nevada and Arizona could be Dem pickups too, as metro areas out west collect higher and higher percentages of those states’ overall populations.

I say look for Bush to be ordering lots of “pop,” or be seen with many a can of Coca-Cola come 2004.

As for my analysis, go ahead and send my name to the Nobel committee now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 7th, 2002 at 11:03 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.