I realize that Obama's presence on the ticket made it more dem but even in 2004 it had a PVI of D+6.4.
The reason I'm asking this is because when it comes to race, the state is almost a perfect microcosm of the country, so why isn't it a microcosm politically? It was, for the most part, a swing state for most of the 20th century. It is around 63-64 percent white with the rest being mostly black or hispanic with some asians here and there.
Although IL is a perfect microcosm of the nation racially, it doesn't have the deep south and plains/inner mountain west whites who skew the white vote so Republican nationally. Thus IL is more Democrat than the nation as a whole.
