Will we ever have a President from Hawaii or Alaska (or any other small state)

[jimrtex]

Says it on the tin. When I say "from" I mean holds elected office, not just being born there.

Bill Clinton was the last small state President, and they're pretty few and far between. Why exactly is this?

The four presidents who were not from one of the 20% largest states (based on census closest to their inauguration) were:

Adams, JQ
Jackson
Taylor
Pierce
Johnson, A
Wilson
Carter
Clinton
? Warren

The only two from a small state (bottom half):

Pierce
Clinton
? Paul (Kentucky or smaller)

[jimrtex]

We did have a lot of chances for small-staters and missed 'em.

Small-Staters elected:

Adams - Massachusetts (In 1790, Massachusetts was the 2nd largest state, by 1800 it had dropped to 4th by a small amount behind Pennsylvania and New York).  In 1796 it would have been somewhere in between.

JQ Adams -Massachusetts (By 1820, Massachusetts had dropped to 7th, but would have been 4th with Maine included)

Jackson - Tennessee (In 1830 Tennessee was 7th, by 1840 it was 5th).

Polk - Tennessee (In 1840 and 1850, Tennessee was 5th).

Taylor -Louisiana (was he from Louisiana?)
Pierce -New Hampshire
A. Johnson -Tennessee (by 1870 Tennessee was 10th)
Wilson - New Jersey (in 1910 New Jersey was 11th, advancing to 10th in 1920).
Truman -Missouri (Missouri was 10th in 1940, 11th in 1950)
Carter- Georgia
Clinton -Arkansas

As for those who lost:

Pinckney - South Carolina
Cass - Michigan
Fremont - California
Bryan - Nebraska
Davis - West Virginia
Landon- Kansas
Wilkie - Indiana (by the time he was a candidate, New York).
Goldwater - Arizona
McGovern - South Dakota
Dole - Kansas

Yeah not so sure Gore counts with Tennessee anymore