Grouping states in three

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, how would you group states in trios?
The lower 48 can be divided into 16 3-state groupings.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Purple is the oddball group.

[Roll Roons]

1. ME-NH-VT (Northern New England)
2. MA-RI-CT (Southern New England)
3. NY-NJ-PA (Mid-Atlantic)
4. DE-MD-VA (Chesapeake)
5. WV-KY-TN (Appalachia)
6. NC-SC-FL (Retiree havens)
7. GA-MS-AL (Heart of Dixie)
8. MO-AR-OK (Upper South/Ozarks)
9. LA-TX-NM (Oil and Gas Producers)
9. OH-IN-IL (Rust Belt)
10. MI-WI-MN (Upper Midwest)
11. IA-KS-NE (Corn Belt)
12. ND-SD-MT (Prairies)
14. UT-CO-WY (Mountain West)
15. ID-WA-OR (PNW)
16. CA-NV-AZ (Hispanic West)

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Decided to try the first time to do something out of the box.

[OSR stands with Israel]

[Schiff for Senate]

Far from perfect, of course, but about the best I could manage at a first attempt.

Decided to try the first time to do something out of the box.

The eastern part of your map is pretty much identical to mine!

[Schiff for Senate]

1. ME-NH-VT (Northern New England)
2. MA-RI-CT (Southern New England)
3. NY-NJ-PA (Mid-Atlantic)
4. DE-MD-VA (Chesapeake)
5. WV-KY-TN (Appalachia)
6. NC-SC-FL (Retiree havens)
7. GA-MS-AL (Heart of Dixie)
8. MO-AR-OK (Upper South/Ozarks)
9. LA-TX-NM (Oil and Gas Producers)
9. OH-IN-IL (Rust Belt)
10. MI-WI-MN (Upper Midwest)
11. IA-KS-NE (Corn Belt)
12. ND-SD-MT (Prairies)
14. UT-CO-WY (Mountain West)
15. ID-WA-OR (PNW)
16. CA-NV-AZ (Hispanic West)

This is great, but I have to call you out on bending the rules for not keeping it contiguous...honestly it's the keeping-it-contiguous that really screwed up so much of my map (Florida, as always, became a problem...lumping it with two Deep South states definitely feels wrong, doubly so when one of them is ing Mississippi).

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Far from perfect, of course, but about the best I could manage at a first attempt.

Decided to try the first time to do something out of the box.

The eastern part of your map is pretty much identical to mine!

It is quite similar yeah.
I quite like the Great Lakes grouping of MWM and IIO. It has a great look to it on the map.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

[OSR stands with Israel]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

I tried and doing so messed it up . I can’t tell you how much i hated grouping OR and WA with CA

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

I tried and doing so messed it up . I can’t tell you how much i hated grouping OR and WA with CA

I think I just thought of a way to do it. Stay tuned.

[Schiff for Senate]

Far from perfect, of course, but about the best I could manage at a first attempt.

Decided to try the first time to do something out of the box.

The eastern part of your map is pretty much identical to mine!

It is quite similar yeah.
I quite like the Great Lakes grouping of MWM and IIO. It has a great look to it on the map.

Yeah, that pair + NJ/NY/PA + New England duo turned out exactly as I'd hoped. A lot of the rest of it kinda fell apart.

[Schiff for Senate]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

[OSR stands with Israel]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

Amazing work !

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Not a fan of UT being with CA but I got AZ-NM-TX in return so I'm not unhappy.

[Schiff for Senate]

I did give a shot at a variant of the OP - four states each instead of three to see how that turned out...better in some places (Four Corners is very aesthetically pleasing) than others.

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

Amazing work !

Thanks!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Can anyone think of a way to make WA-OR-ID work?

This is quite well-done, wow. I had something kind of like that on the drawing board before scrapping it. It does seem that CA-NV-AZ is generally the best way to handle CA, if you can't reach the PNW.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The idea here was initially AL+GA+FL, before morphing into "let's cross rivers" kinda.

[Vern]

[Vice President Christian Man]

Northern New England: VT, NH, ME
Southern New England: MA, RI, CT
Mid Atlantic: NY, NJ, PA
Rust Belt: OH, IN, MI
Chicagoapolis: IL, WI, MN
Southern Plains: IA, KS, NE
Northern Plains: SD, ND, MT
Rockies: ID, WY, CO
West Coast: WA, OR, CA
Romney: NV, AZ, UT
New Mexico: NM, TX, OK
Ozark: MO, AR, LA
Deep South: MS, AL, FL
Southeast: GA, SC, NC
Appalachia: TN, KY, WV
Delmarva: Self explanatory

[Vice President Christian Man]

Grouped by 4's:
New Canada: ME, NH, VT, MA
Greater New York: RI, CT, NY, NJ
Blue Wall: PA, OH, IN, MI
Corntown: IL, IA, WI, MN
Great Plains: KS. NE, SD, ND
Rockies: MT, WY, ID, UT
West Coast: WA, OR, CA, NV
Southwest: AZ, CO, NM, TX
Ozark: OK, LA, AR, MO
Appalachia: MS, TN, KY, WV
Deep South: AL, FL, GA, SC
Southeast: NC, VA, MD, DE

[Malarkey Decider]

No one said they had to be continuous.

I actually think CA, FL, TX is not a bad grouping. Large States, High Hispanic Population, around 10% Black, Multiple Large Urban Areas. At a minimum, this makes just as much sense as wherever else Florida is put into.

I also think CO/WA/OR is a good pairing. Rich Democratic States with one dominant metro (Denver, Seattle, Portland) that also have more mountainous rural areas.

[Vern]

No one said they had to be continuous.

I actually think CA, FL, TX is not a bad grouping. Large States, High Hispanic Population, around 10% Black, Multiple Large Urban Areas. At a minimum, this makes just as much sense as wherever else Florida is put into.

I also think CO/WA/OR is a good pairing. Rich Democratic States with one dominant metro (Denver, Seattle, Portland) that also have more mountainous rural areas.

This is probably the best if they don’t have to be continuous

[ultraviolet]

Made this map after seeing the thread title but not any of the other maps. I guess IL and MI could be interchangeable in this map. The upper south is kind of a mess but I don't know how else to do it. Could also do NC-SC-FL and TN-AL-GA if I want them to be non-contiguous.