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U.S. Presidents by State

Can you name the state where each U.S. president had their political base?
IMPORTANT: READ BEFORE COMMENTING The place of their political base, not necessarily their birth place
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 20, 2021
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First submittedMay 1, 2011
Times taken63,891
Average score48.9%
Rating4.29
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President
State
Joe Biden
Delaware
Donald Trump
New York
Barack Obama
Illinois
George W. Bush
Texas
Bill Clinton
Arkansas
George Bush Sr.
Texas
Ronald Reagan
California
Jimmy Carter
Georgia
Gerald R. Ford
Michigan
Richard Nixon
California
Lyndon B. Johnson
Texas
John F. Kennedy
Massachusetts
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Kansas
Harry Truman
Missouri
Franklin D. Roosevelt
New York
President
State
Herbert Hoover
California
Calvin Coolidge
Massachusetts
Warren Harding
Ohio
Woodrow Wilson
New Jersey
William Taft
Ohio
Theodore Roosevelt
New York
William McKinley
Ohio
Benjamin Harrison
Indiana
Grover Cleveland
New York
Chester A. Arthur
New York
James Garfield
Ohio
Rutherford B. Hayes
Ohio
Ulysses S. Grant
Illinois
Andrew Johnson
Tennessee
Abraham Lincoln
Illinois
President
State
James Buchanan
Pennsylvania
Franklin Pierce
New Hampshire
Millard Fillmore
New York
Zachary Taylor
Louisiana
James K. Polk
Tennessee
John Tyler
Virginia
William Henry Harrison
Ohio
Martin Van Buren
New York
Andrew Jackson
Tennessee
John Quincy Adams
Massachusetts
James Monroe
Virginia
James Madison
Virginia
Thomas Jefferson
Virginia
John Adams
Massachusetts
George Washington
Virginia
54 Comments
+6
Level 94
May 1, 2011
Can you also do a quiz of the presidents' birth states?
+6
Level 28
Oct 19, 2017
I found a quiz for you
+9
Level 39
Feb 25, 2012
Turns out I have no idea where presidents are from.
+4
Level 93
Oct 21, 2013
Got all but Ford with a guess or two, but had to run through about 25 states to get Ford. And of course, it was Michigan. Really should have made that connection before...

To the previous commentors, read the instructions: Name the state of origin for each U.S. president. (The place of their political base, not necessarily their birth place.)

+8
Level 43
Feb 16, 2017
Not related to Henry. Born Leslie King and was given the name Gerald Ford by his stepfather. Also from Grand Rapids, not Detroit.
+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...
+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 52
Oct 19, 2015
lol soooo many from OHIO
+4
Level 45
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.
+6
Level 82
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
+4
Level 59
Jan 24, 2017
READ THE NOTICE! It's about where they began their political careers, not where they were born. Reagan was the only president born in Illinois, for example, but Lincoln, Obama, and Grant were all based there.
+4
Level 43
Feb 16, 2017
And to top it all off, Reagan's base was in California
+3
Level 65
Feb 16, 2017
Actually, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii...It's okay that you made that mistake, not everyone is as smart as me.
+14
Level 60
Feb 16, 2017
Most can still read though, which is doubtful in your case.
+1
Level 62
Oct 31, 2024
this comment makes me think that you have a very nasal voice.
+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 83
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?
+4
Level 70
Mar 10, 2019
You spelled Russia wrong
+1
Level 93
Sep 10, 2021
Russia = Ohio. I see no spelling difference. :)
+2
Level 41
Mar 18, 2019
coolidge was born in vermont not massachusetts
+1
Level 93
Aug 18, 2023
But he was Governor of Massachusetts, hence why the Bay State was the base of his politics. Romney has served as governor and senator of different states, and neither of which is the one he was born in, so politics has less to do with where you were born and more of where you choose to live and build yourself.
+2
Level 48
Apr 16, 2019
Yes, noted Texan George W. Bush... 🙄
+5
Level 83
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??
+2
Level 50
May 31, 2019
polk is north carolina so is andrew johnson
+2
Level 93
Aug 18, 2023
No, they're not. Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina but he was a politician in Tennessee. If this list was just "which states were the presidents born in" it would be a very different list. Obama, Biden, and both Bushes would have different states listed for example.
+4
Level 84
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.
+3
Level 49
Jan 4, 2020
I thought Jackson was from SC
+2
Level 67
Sep 6, 2021
He was born there, but all his political appointments were in 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.
+6
Level 88
Jan 20, 2021
I've got to disagree with one of your answers. Zachary Taylor, although born in Virginia, was always most associated with Kentucky. He grew up there, was associated with a Kentucky regiment during the Civil War, and is memorialized in Kentucky. Although he did live for a time in Louisiana, he is not really associated with the place.
+3
Level 83
Jan 22, 2021
His is probably the strangest, since he never held any office prior to becoming president, so there really isn't any political base of note. A case could be made for a few places I guess.
+2
Level 84
Jan 27, 2021
Taylor's a special case. But some good contemporary evidence is that when the Congress counted the electoral votes in joint session in 1849 the official congressional record identifies Taylor as being "of Louisiana" (see here: https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=021/llcg021.db&recNum=574).
+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?
+1
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 84
Oct 18, 2023
That's not what political base means.
+1
Level 74
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!
+1
Level 55
Nov 16, 2023
Obama was born in indonesia
+1
Level 93
Aug 16, 2024
First off, no he wasn't. Second, this quiz is about where their political base of operations was. Obama was a senator from Illinois, hence why that's the answer here. It says so in the description if you bothered reading it at all.