AHC/WI: Democratic Alaska, Republican Hawaii

Delta Force

Banned
When Alaska and Hawaii were admitted into the Union, it was thought that Alaska would be a Democratic state and Hawaii would be a Republican state. Ironically, things turned out the opposite way. Why did that happen, and how might Alaska and Hawaii have gone on to have the political party preferences originally predicted?
 
When Alaska and Hawaii were admitted into the Union, it was thought that Alaska would be a Democratic state and Hawaii would be a Republican state. Ironically, things turned out the opposite way. Why did that happen, and how might Alaska and Hawaii have gone on to have the political party preferences originally predicted?

i'd say it has something to do with the environment. notice that most of the more conservative states are the more rural ones with fewer people while the more liberal ones are more heavily populated, especially coastal states (this applies within states, too: California is your archetypal liberal state, but the rural areas are pretty conservative). since Alaska is larger, far less developed, and doesn't have as attractive a climate as other states, in that case it makes sense that it would be a more conservative state, similarly to Arizona (though that one is on the other extreme of climate: desert as opposed to tundra). Hawaii, on the other hand, could credibly be described as all beachfront property in terms of politics, again similarly to California, since it's all islands and the tropical climate is VERY tempting to outsiders (my sister and her husband live there, for example, as does one of my old neighbors who all grew up in California)
 
Alaska was actually fairly Democratic initially-it voted roughly with the national average in 1960 and 1968, and was one of Goldwater's worst states outside New England. Alaska was heavily unionized (and still is; in 2011, it was the second most unionized state in the nation) and was heavily dependent on federal spending. But environmentalism led the state to take a massive swing toward Republicans beginning in the 1970s as union oil workers felt under attack by environmentalist policies.

Hawaii was false gold for Republicans from the start-why anyone thought it would be Republican after 1954 is beyond me.
 
Hawaii was false gold for Republicans from the start-why anyone thought it would be Republican after 1954 is beyond me.

Why specifically after '54? I'm not too familiar with Hawaiian history pre-statehood and wouldn't know how to look up the incident you are referring to. The congressional delegate election results pre-1959 actually would seem to indicate that Hawaii would usually vote Republican, with most of the delegates dating all the way back to annexation being Republicans.
 
Why specifically after '54? I'm not too familiar with Hawaiian history pre-statehood and wouldn't know how to look up the incident you are referring to. The congressional delegate election results pre-1959 actually would seem to indicate that Hawaii would usually vote Republican, with most of the delegates dating all the way back to annexation being Republicans.

1954 was the Democratic Revolution.
The Hawaiian Democratic Party went from Heavy Hawaiian Support to breaching out to the Japanese and other ethnic groups.

The Republican Party has a bad history: the folks who overthrew the Kingdom formed the Republican Party after annexation, and it has the stigma of the racist, white man's party thanks to things like the Massie Affair.

Getting Hawaii to be a Republican stronghold is difficult.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
Hawaii during the early Cold War had a ton more naval personnel than it did later on.

Military voting tends to lean conservatively for the most part, although the binary party differences were not clear until later on. Still, the Republicans may have done a lot better in Hawaii if there was still the level of military personnel there that there was in the 40s and 50s.

As for Alaska, have the Democrats not go down the environmentalist path. Economically speaking, much like West Virginia and Kentucky, Alaska is a state that leans a bit to the left on workers issues and is very uncomfortable with the GOP's Eastern Establishment and Wall Street stuff, but even more uncomfortable with the social liberalism and environmentalism of the Democrats, which threatens jobs, values, etc.

Keep the Democrats moderate on social and environmental issues, and they will keep Appalachia and Alaska both.
 
Alaska was actually fairly Democratic initially-it voted roughly with the national average in 1960 and 1968, and was one of Goldwater's worst states outside New England. Alaska was heavily unionized (and still is; in 2011, it was the second most unionized state in the nation) and was heavily dependent on federal spending. But environmentalism led the state to take a massive swing toward Republicans beginning in the 1970s as union oil workers felt under attack by environmentalist policies.

Hawaii was false gold for Republicans from the start-why anyone thought it would be Republican after 1954 is beyond me.

Well, in 1960 HI did almost break for Nixon, no? I think they were counting on there being more military types over the long term than there actually were.
 
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