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U.S. Presidents by State

For each U.S. President guess EITHER the state where they were born OR the state of their political base.
Answer must correspond to the yellow box
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: April 6, 2025
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First submittedMay 1, 2011
Times taken65,721
Average score48.9%
Rating4.29
5:00
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President
State
Donald Trump
New York
Joe Biden
Pennsylvania / Delaware
Barack Obama
Hawaii / Illinois
George W. Bush
Connecticut / Texas
Bill Clinton
Arkansas
George Bush Sr.
Massachusetts / Texas
Ronald Reagan
Illinois / California
Jimmy Carter
Georgia
Gerald R. Ford
Nebraska / Michigan
Richard Nixon
California
Lyndon B. Johnson
Texas
John F. Kennedy
Massachusetts
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Texas / Kansas
Harry Truman
Missouri
Franklin D. Roosevelt
New York
Herbert Hoover
Iowa / California
Calvin Coolidge
Vermont / Massachusetts
Warren Harding
Ohio
Woodrow Wilson
Virginia / New Jersey
William Taft
Ohio
Theodore Roosevelt
New York
William McKinley
Ohio
Benjamin Harrison
Ohio / Indiana
President
State
Grover Cleveland
New Jersey / New York
Chester A. Arthur
Vermont / New York
James Garfield
Ohio
Rutherford B. Hayes
Ohio
Ulysses S. Grant
Ohio / Illinois
Andrew Johnson
North Carolina / Tennessee
Abraham Lincoln
Kentucky / Illinois
James Buchanan
Pennsylvania
Franklin Pierce
New Hampshire
Millard Fillmore
New York
Zachary Taylor
Virginia / Louisiana
James K. Polk
North Carolina / Tennessee
John Tyler
Virginia
William Henry Harrison
Virginia / Ohio
Martin Van Buren
New York
Andrew Jackson
South Carolina / Tennessee
John Quincy Adams
Massachusetts
James Monroe
Virginia
James Madison
Virginia
Thomas Jefferson
Virginia
John Adams
Massachusetts
George Washington
Virginia
35 Comments
+9
Level 39
Feb 25, 2012
Turns out I have no idea where presidents are from.
+4
Level 78
Feb 13, 2014
Thank you Die Hard With a Vengence for the Chester A. Arthur answer. "Find out who the 21st president is." "Chester A. Arthur...did you know he was the collector of customs right here in New York?" Awesome!
+3
Level 14
Mar 7, 2014
39, not bad.
+5
Level 81
Nov 5, 2014
Got the first seven and last six (hint for the early ones: Virginia and Massachusetts). Rest were mostly a crap shoot. C'mon this is way harder than some of my other leaders quizzes. Also, though I got it, was Bush Sr.'s power base really in Texas? I thought he was a Mass resident. I know the family has ties to many states. Not really important...
+1
Level 44
Jan 20, 2025
He was born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, but started an oil company in Texas, and served as representative from there, and would live most of his life after entering politics in either DC or Texas.
+2
Level 26
Mar 7, 2015
Herbert Hoover was from West Branch, Iowa (I live there!) !
+4
Level 45
Mar 27, 2015
Franklin Pierce University is in New Hampshire, making that one a little easier to remember.
+3
Level 53
Oct 19, 2015
lol soooo many from OHIO
+4
Level 44
Apr 8, 2016
Got a few by guessing Virginia for all of the older ones.
+3
Level 76
Jun 16, 2016
Dwight D.Eisenhower ran for President from New York not Kansas
+2
Level 28
May 11, 2020
Indeed, he was the president of Columbia University until he was inaugurated as president. Even at this late date, this error should be corrected.
+4
Level 67
Sep 6, 2021
Tough to say where his political "base" is though, as he never held elected office before becoming president. I most associate him with Kansas, so that answer made sense to me. Same with Trump. He's hated in New York and has less political power there than just about anywhere, but he never held office before being president, so it's still the place with which he is most associated. So I don't think the question is where Eisenhower was immediately before his presidency, but where he is most associated with. And that's Kansas.
+1
Level ∞
Apr 6, 2025
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_home_state#States_of_primary_affiliation
+7
Level 81
Oct 27, 2016
Well, you'll get over a quarter of them just typing 'New York' or 'Ohio'. Throw Virginia and Massachusetts in and you'll get a decent score. Considering their populations, California and Texas are underperforming in the presidential stakes, particularly since Texas only got two and three quite recently.
+5
Level 73
Sep 23, 2018
California's population is only relatively recently huge. We'll probably be seeing a lot more presidential contenders from it in the near future.
+1
Level 83
Sep 6, 2021
and considering Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York were already states at the start of the country, as opposed to several decades down the line, it makes sense that there are more presidents based in those states
+2
Level 60
Feb 16, 2017
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson really helped with, well, everything up to Andrew Jackson, inclusive.
+2
Level 30
Mar 13, 2017
Using the same logic as the others (and I agree with it), Nixon ran from New York.
+2
Level 12
Jul 31, 2017
Guess no one wants to run for president from a political base waist-deep in potatoes and sugar beets...... When I'm old enough, I'm probably gonna run for president in the place I was born and raised:Idaho.
+3
Level 82
Aug 17, 2017
28/44 Had no clue on most of them, so I just typed in Ohio and Virginia on everyone, knowing that those two states produced a lot of presidents.
+3
Level 4
Apr 17, 2018
I did not do well on this one 31 out of 44
+2
Level 44
Jun 16, 2018
Could u accept state abbreviations? Plz?
+4
Level 56
Jul 10, 2018
Does anyone else just guess Virginia for all the early presidents hoping to get lucky?
+2
Level 48
Apr 16, 2019
Yes, noted Texan George W. Bush... 🙄
+6
Level 82
Jan 22, 2021
Hmm, let's see. Born in CT. Raised and attended school in both Midland, TX and Houston before finishing HS and college in Massachusetts. Got married in Texas. Both his daughters born in Texas. Was a pilot for the Texas National Guard. Was Governor of Texas from 1995-2000. Continues to live there to this day. Is that not enough Texas for you??
+4
Level 85
Jun 3, 2019
Why is Grant's base considered to be from Illinois?
+1
Level 93
Aug 18, 2023
He was living there when he ran for President I believe.
+1
Level 44
Jan 20, 2025
Generals are always tough, since they usually moved a lot and didn’t always have a base of representation in just one state. Taylor was living in Louisiana when he became president, but other places associate him with his native Kentucky, where he’s buried. Eisenhower was living in New York when he became president, and lived in Pennsylvania for a while afterwards, but is primarily associated with his home state of Kansas. Only Jackson is really well-associated with one state, Tennessee
+3
Level 81
Jun 10, 2020
For the 2nd column if you don't know, just guess Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee or Illinois and you'll do okay.
+3
Level 81
Jun 10, 2020
For the first column Texas, Ohio, New York and California are pretty safe bets.
+1
Level 62
Sep 7, 2021
Trump's political base ISN'T in New York. They hate him there, because he lived there they know him well. His political base is in the south where they don't know him as well
+4
Level 91
Sep 7, 2021
I went ahead and looked this up. His home state was New York when he ran in 2016, but in 2019 he moved his primary residence to Mar-a-Lago, which is in Florida. The Wikipedia page for the 2020 election lists Florida as his home state, with an added caveat including the residency change. Perhaps Florida could be an accepted answer?
+2
Level 93
Aug 16, 2024
I also agree that Florida should at least be an acceptable answer; 2024 will mark two elections in which Florida is his political base/center, as opposed to just one for New York in 2016.
+1
Level 85
Oct 18, 2023
That's not what political base means.
+1
Level 75
Jan 29, 2023
Good quiz. I scored 30/45. I got all of the Virginia men, but I missed half of Ohio. Thanks for the quiz!