Presidential Travel Favors Blue, Purple States
President Obama's trip to Georgia tomorrow will be his first as president. According to data shared by the indispensable Mark Knoller of CBS News, it will mark the 31st state the president has traveled to since taking office last January.
Looking more closely at those numbers, a pattern emerges that is hard to ignore. Obama has visited 23 of the 28 states he carried in November 2008, but only six of the 22 states carried by Republican John McCain. Broken into three broad categories:
- Obama has made 47 stops in the 19 states he carried by more than 10 points (including 16 in neighboring Maryland).
- Obama has made 44 stops in the 16 states where the final result was within 10 points (including 19 in neighboring Virginia).
- Obama has made 4 stops in the 15 states that McCain carried by more than 10 points.
And some of those visits to deep red states were more incidental. His only stop in Wyoming, for instance, was a family trip to Yellowstone National Park. He stopped in Alaska only briefly to speak with troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base, while Air Force One refueled for the remainder of his trip to Asia.
It's the battleground states that have clearly gotten special notice. After Maryland, Virginia and New York, Ohio has seen the most visits with five. Pennsylvania, Florida and Colorado have seen three presidential visits, while Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Indiana and Missouri have been visited twice.
That's not to say all things are motivated by politics. Among the 20 states that have yet to see the president are the deep blue Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine, just as the deeply red Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho are on his to-do list. But after tomorrow's stop in Georgia, there will be no state where the margin of victory for either candidate was 5 percent or less that he will have failed to visit.
After the jump, a full list of the states Obama has visited, including the total number of visits. Thanks again to Mark Knoller for his data:
Alaska - 1
Arizona - 3
California - 2
Colorado - 3
Connecticut - 1
Delaware - 1
Florida - 3
Hawaii - 1
Illinois - 4
Indiana - 2
Iowa - 1
Louisiana - 1
Maryland - 16 (does not include Camp David or Andrews AFB)
Massachusetts - 3
Michigan - 1
Minnesota - 1
Missouri - 2
Montana - 1
Nevada - 2
New Hamsphire - 2
New Jersey - 3
New Mexico - 1
New York - 7
North Carolina - 2
Ohio - 5
Pennsylvania - 3
Texas - 1
Virginia - 19 (does not include golf outings)
Wisconsin - 2
Wyoming - 1



