25. is one of only two states that never voted for FDR

It is almost unimaginable that the now ultra-liberal state of Vermont never voted for the man who so embodied liberalism. But that is exactly what happened in each of the four times FDR ran for president. FDR ran in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. In every one of those elections Vermont voted for his opponent.

In 1932, in his first try at the presidency, FDR ran against Herbert Hoover. FDR won every state except six—Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Connecticut. Vermont had the distinction of giving Roosevelt the lowest percentage of the popular vote—41 percent—of any other state. Fully 58 percent of Vermonters voted for Hoover—a higher percentage of the popular vote than any other state.

In 1936 FDR ran for a second term, this time against Republican Alf Landon. Poor Alf didn’t stand a chance. FDR garnered a whopping 98.5% of the electoral vote nationwide. Only Maine and Vermont went for Landon with 41.5 and 43.2 percent of the vote respectively. Together, these two small states gave poor Alf a less than whopping total of 8 electoral votes versus FDR’s 523. The Kansan did not even take Kansas.

The oddball results prompted one Democratic pundit to jokingly twist the slogan “As Maine goes, so goes the nation” into “As goes Maine, so goes Vermont.” There was even snarky talk of selling off the two nutty states to Canada.