Mitt Romney: The First Republican Candidate to lose his home state since 1944

[BigSkyBob]

George HW Bush lost Maine in 1992.

Driver's licence stated he was from Texas.

[heatmaster]

California, no with the Los Angeles liberal - Hollywood elite and the San Francisco Kool-Aid kooky crowd, it's Obama's because they are so comfortable with each other.

[Wisconsin+17]

Isn't his home state Utah?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

George HW Bush lost Maine in 1992.

Driver's licence stated he was from Texas.

And Hillary Clinton's states she's from New York.

[BigSkyBob]

George HW Bush lost Maine in 1992.

Driver's licence stated he was from Texas.

And Hillary Clinton's states she's from New York.

Well, there is that house in Westchester County.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well Nixon also had a residence in New York in 1968, so he also counts as losing his "home state" then.

[BigSkyBob]

Well Nixon also had a residence in New York in 1968, so he also counts as losing his "home state" then.

Exactly! People chose to move to different states all the time. I see no reason to question their individual decisions to change states.

[gotapresent]

More typical arrogance from Obummer supporters. The polls in MA are clearly biased 25 points against Republicans, Romney will carry Massachusetts mark my words.

[J. J.]

Well Nixon also had a residence in New York in 1968, so he also counts as losing his "home state" then.

BRTD, that is actually what I was saying. 

[heatmaster]

Wishful thinking about Massachusetts, nice if Romney were to win it, extremely unlikely; I would be shocked if he did.

[Mr. Morden]

"Home state" is typically thought of as the state in which you had your political career.  So Nixon and Reagan's home state = CA, the Bushes' home state = TX, Romney's home state = MA, Obama's home state = IL, etc.

Where you're actually living at the time you run actually seems to be secondary, as far as these things go.

[Lincoln Republican]

Everybody has known all along that there is absolutely no way that Romney was ever going to win Massachusetts in the Presidential election, so this is a non issue.

[White Cloud]

"Home state" is typically thought of as the state in which you had your political career.  So Nixon and Reagan's home state = CA, the Bushes' home state = TX, Romney's home state = MA, Obama's home state = IL, etc.

Where you're actually living at the time you run actually seems to be secondary, as far as these things go.

The Atlas section of this website shows Nixon as representing New York in the 1968 presidential election, so I assume that Nixon was listed on the ballot in the 1968 election as being from New York. Correct me if I am wrong about this. To my way of thinking, the candidate's "home state" is the state that the candidate is listed on the ballot as being from. In the case where no state is listed on the ballot for a particular candidate, the candidate's home state would be the state where the candidate serves as an elected official. In the case where the candidate is not currently serving as an elected official and where the candidate's state is not listed on the ballot, the candidate's home state would be the state where the candidate resides and votes.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I say that Romney's real home state is New Hampshire and we'll see if he's going to lose it.

Fine, if his 'real' home state is somewhere different, then Massachusetts is the state where he served as governor under (symbolically) false pretenses. Whether that makes it better or worse I'm honestly not sure.

Symbolically false pretenses? Was he wearing the wrong hat?

Considering that whether or not Romney was 'really' from Massachusetts was in fact an issue in 2002 and it wasn't initially entirely clear whether he was even eligible for Governor under the state constitution...

He has a track record of what his 'real' home state is being ambiguous is my point. Either it's Massachusetts or there just isn't one, in which case the 'pretense' would be that he was from Massachusetts enough to be Governor of it.

And yes, had I been living in New York in 2000 I would have been at least initially highly suspicious of Hillary Clinton.

J.J., even in 1968 most people thought of Nixon as Californian, and rightfully so.

[Mr. Morden]

"Home state" is typically thought of as the state in which you had your political career.  So Nixon and Reagan's home state = CA, the Bushes' home state = TX, Romney's home state = MA, Obama's home state = IL, etc.

Where you're actually living at the time you run actually seems to be secondary, as far as these things go.

The Atlas section of this website shows Nixon as representing New York in the 1968 presidential election, so I assume that Nixon was listed on the ballot in the 1968 election as being from New York. Correct me if I am wrong about this. To my way of thinking, the candidate's "home state" is the state that the candidate is listed on the ballot as being from.

Are there actually states that print presidential election ballots with the candidates' home states listed?  I've voted in presidential elections in three different states, and don't remember ever seeing the home state listed.

[Seriously?]

Is Romney voting in Massachusetts or California?

I think his "home" is Massachusetts for voting purposes. If I were Romney, I'd sure as heck be looking to vote in New Hampshire instead of Mass. since it is a swing state.

[Indy Texas]

Home State = State Where You Held Elected Office

Where you're registered to vote means absolutely nothing. If I serve as governor of Texas for two terms, and a few years later when I'm a presidential candidate I claim my primary residence as a beach house I own in Florida, no one in their right mind is going to say that my home state is Florida.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Romney's home state is MA.

The end.

[White Cloud]

"Home state" is typically thought of as the state in which you had your political career.  So Nixon and Reagan's home state = CA, the Bushes' home state = TX, Romney's home state = MA, Obama's home state = IL, etc.

Where you're actually living at the time you run actually seems to be secondary, as far as these things go.

The Atlas section of this website shows Nixon as representing New York in the 1968 presidential election, so I assume that Nixon was listed on the ballot in the 1968 election as being from New York. Correct me if I am wrong about this. To my way of thinking, the candidate's "home state" is the state that the candidate is listed on the ballot as being from.

Are there actually states that print presidential election ballots with the candidates' home states listed?  I've voted in presidential elections in three different states, and don't remember ever seeing the home state listed.

I don't know of any states that print the home states of presidential candidates on the ballot, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist or haven't ever existed in the past. But you ignored the rest of my statement, which is that in the event that no state is listed on the ballot, the candidate's home state would be the state that the candidate represents as an elected official at the time of the election or the state in which the candidate resides and votes at the time of the election. If you are going to say that a candidate's home state is the state that the candidate once represented as an elected official (but no longer does) or the state where a candidate once lived (but no longer does), then explain how the Atlas on this very site shows Richard Nixon's home state in the 1968 presidential election as being New York (rather than California).

If Nixon's primary residence and voting location at the time of the 1968 presidential election was New York, then his home state was New York. If you want to argue that his home state was really California, then you're contradicting the data on this site. "Home state" has to have a particular meaning and it has to be consistent in order to make historical comparisons between "home states" of different candidates (and to make claims about those "home states", as the title of this thread does when it claims that Mitt Romney would be the "first Republican since 1944 to lose his home state", which would be an erroneous claim if Nixon's "home state" in 1968 was New York, since Nixon lost New York in the 1968 election).

Based on how candidates' "home states" are depicted in the Atlas, the Atlas defines candidates' home states based on where the candidate resided at the time of the election, not based on where the candidate once held elected office. If you (or others) disagree with this definition and believe that "home state" should be defined as the state where a candidate once held elected office, then perhaps you should petition to have that definition incorporated in the Atlas, because that's not how home states are currently depicted in the Atlas.

[Fritz]

Home state is the state where the candidate currently resides, and filed taxes in for the current year.  This is important for constitutional purposes- the constitution mandates that a Presidential elector must cast one of his or her two votes (President and Vice-President) for an individual who is not from the same state as the elector.  For this reason, Presidential tickets always have two candidates from different states.