Washington is home to three enormous private employers (Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft). Most states don't even have one private company employing as many people as one of these companies does, and Washington has three.
All three are in industries where the employees are disproportionately male and disproportionately Democrat.
I think that's a big factor. I imagine the port and shipbuilding industries are the same way. Even though California has a lot of these same industries, the state is so huge they just don't have the same overall influence there.
Washington is still a fairly white state. I think that means we might lack some of the racial tension that drives white men to vote Republican in other Democratic states likes California or New York.
Washington isn't very religious - the only reason we lost the least religious spot to Vermont is because that state is so much whiter. I wouldn't be surprised if whites in Washington were less religious than in Upper New England. But we have a lot more immigrants from Latin America and Asia who tend to be religious keeping our religious % up.
Also, we'll give up our legal marijuana when you pry it from our cold, dead hands!
