US divided by time zones

[justfollowingtheelections]

I never liked how states can vote at different times with some states still voting while others have already been called.  So I thought what if the country was divided by time zones as seen in the map below?


What would be the ideology of the two main political parties in each of the 6 time zones/new countries and who the political leaders?  Also, what would be the capital of each country?

[AGA]

Eastern and Pacific would be solidly Democratic, Mountain would be Republican, and Central would be Republican leaning. Alaska and Hawaii would be the same, of course, with the exception of some of the Aleutian islands being in Hawaii.

As for capitals, it would be difficult to find a centrally located capital in the Eastern time zone since Appalachia does not contain many large cities. Pittsburgh or Richmond is a reasonable location. Kansas City seems like a good capital for the Central time zone. The Mountain time zone could have Salt Lake City or Denver. I guess that the Pacific time zone could have San Francisco as it capital, but assuming that the California state capitol still exists, they could use Sacramento out of convenience.

Ideologies would probably be a lot less moderate in statewide elections since the only competitive state would be the Central time zone.

[LLR]

Capitals:

East - Richmond
Central - St. Louis, no doubt
Mountain - Denver
Pacific - San Fran

AK and HI as they are

[justfollowingtheelections]

I was thinking that the East could keep D.C. as it's capital.

[AGA]

I was thinking that the East could keep D.C. as it's capital.

Are these time zones different states in the US or are they separate countries?

[justfollowingtheelections]

I was thinking that the East could keep D.C. as it's capital.

Are these time zones different states in the US or are they separate countries?

In my scenario, I guess the question was how would the time zones vote if they were separate countries (so that the entire country can vote at the same time).  But you can explore different scenarios if you like.

[Figueira]

Eastern and Pacific would be solidly Democratic, Mountain would be Republican, and Central would be Republican leaning. Alaska and Hawaii would be the same, of course, with the exception of some of the Aleutian islands being in Hawaii.

As for capitals, it would be difficult to find a centrally located capital in the Eastern time zone since Appalachia does not contain many large cities. Pittsburgh or Richmond is a reasonable location. Kansas City seems like a good capital for the Central time zone. The Mountain time zone could have Salt Lake City or Denver. I guess that the Pacific time zone could have San Francisco as it capital, but assuming that the California state capitol still exists, they could use Sacramento out of convenience.

Ideologies would probably be a lot less moderate in statewide elections since the only competitive state would be the Central time zone.

I think you mixed up Mountain and Central. Mountain would be R leaning (with 2016 being especially close) and Central would be pretty solidly Republican.

But if they're actually separate countries, the parties would be very different from OTL.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Another thing I wanted to mention is that politicians can only run for president in the "country"/time zone where they were born.  And lets assume that all countries had a two-party system and that there are no term limits.
Some of the prominent politicians in each country:

East
D: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden
R: Donald Trump, Mike Pence, John Kasich, Marco Rubio

Central
D: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren
R: Paul Ryan

Mountain
D: ?
R: ?

Pacific
D: Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris
R: ?

Hawaii
D: Barack Obama


Of course it's possible that the parties in each "country" have a very different ideology than the Democratic and Republican party we know.

[AGA]

Eastern and Pacific would be solidly Democratic, Mountain would be Republican, and Central would be Republican leaning. Alaska and Hawaii would be the same, of course, with the exception of some of the Aleutian islands being in Hawaii.

As for capitals, it would be difficult to find a centrally located capital in the Eastern time zone since Appalachia does not contain many large cities. Pittsburgh or Richmond is a reasonable location. Kansas City seems like a good capital for the Central time zone. The Mountain time zone could have Salt Lake City or Denver. I guess that the Pacific time zone could have San Francisco as it capital, but assuming that the California state capitol still exists, they could use Sacramento out of convenience.

Ideologies would probably be a lot less moderate in statewide elections since the only competitive state would be the Central time zone.

I think you mixed up Mountain and Central. Mountain would be R leaning (with 2016 being especially close) and Central would be pretty solidly Republican.

But if they're actually separate countries, the parties would be very different from OTL.

In 2016, the Mountain time zone would actually be quite competitive, but a normal Republican would do a lot better in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona than Trump did.

I'm not sure exactly how Republican the Central time zone would be. Can anyone get the numbers for it by any chance?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Eastern and Pacific would be solidly Democratic, Mountain would be Republican, and Central would be Republican leaning. Alaska and Hawaii would be the same, of course, with the exception of some of the Aleutian islands being in Hawaii.

As for capitals, it would be difficult to find a centrally located capital in the Eastern time zone since Appalachia does not contain many large cities. Pittsburgh or Richmond is a reasonable location. Kansas City seems like a good capital for the Central time zone. The Mountain time zone could have Salt Lake City or Denver. I guess that the Pacific time zone could have San Francisco as it capital, but assuming that the California state capitol still exists, they could use Sacramento out of convenience.

Ideologies would probably be a lot less moderate in statewide elections since the only competitive state would be the Central time zone.

I think you mixed up Mountain and Central. Mountain would be R leaning (with 2016 being especially close) and Central would be pretty solidly Republican.

But if they're actually separate countries, the parties would be very different from OTL.

In 2016, the Mountain time zone would actually be quite competitive, but a normal Republican would do a lot better in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona than Trump did.

I'm not sure exactly how Republican the Central time zone would be. Can anyone get the numbers for it by any chance?

I also think that the Eastern Time Zone could be competitive for the right Republican.  If they had an EC, at least, Trump would have won it 148-104 (assigning each state to one time zone that has the majority of its population).

[palandio]

Western is ca. Clinton +23
Mountain is ca. Trump +6
Central is ca. Trump +11
Eastern is slightly less than Clinton +3 (That one was really shocking for me!)

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Western is ca. Clinton +23
Mountain is ca. Trump +6
Central is ca. Trump +11
Eastern is slightly less than Clinton +3 (That one was really shocking for me!)

Trump also wins the Eastern EC vote.

[/]

Western is ca. Clinton +23
Mountain is ca. Trump +6
Central is ca. Trump +11
Eastern is slightly less than Clinton +3 (That one was really shocking for me!)

Trump also wins the Eastern EC vote.

wow good for him