From Maryland to Maine

"From Maryland to Maine" is a term used in modern American politics to describe the enormous influence and popularity of the United States Democratic Party in the Northeastern United States, which after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act has become the most heavily Democratic region in the country.

History of the Region

1856-1964

The first Republican candidate to ever run in a presidential election, John Fremont, carried the state of New York and all of New England. In the next contest, the U.S. presidential election, 1860, the Republicans extended their control and took every state north of the Mason-Dixon Line. With the usual exception of Maryland and the occasional exception New York and New Jersey, as well as many states voting for Franklin D. Roosevelt during his four elections, the area voted solidly for the Republicans until one crucial year: 1964.

1964-2004

In 1964, with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the appeal of the Democratic Party suddenly underwent a massive change. By backing civil liberties protections for African-Americans and other minorities, the Democrats became the champions of what was a historically Northern goal, the democratization of the American South. Overnight, they had fulfilled a centuries-old Northern fantasy by pushing through Congress the largest civil rights package in United States history. As such, the electorate responded differently to the Democrats in 1964 than they had before.

When the American people went to the polls that Fall, the states of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine all voted for President Lyndon B. Johnson. This was the first time in United States history that all eleven states in the Northeastern United States unanimously chose the Democratic candidate for president.

As the Northeast bolted from the Republican Party, so the South bolted from the Democratic Party. In 1964, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater carried the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, effectively taking the entire Deep South and the heart of the former Confederate States that the Republicans had once invaded.

The Solid South, for all intents and purposes, was shattered.

Within two election cycles, the dominance of the Democratic Party in the Northeast was firmly established; in 1972, when Republican Richard Nixon emerged victorious in one of the biggest landslides in American history, the only states opposing him were Northeastern: Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts. The Democratic Party enjoyed a brief return of Southern loyalty in 1976, but after that it became apparent that the Democratic Party was as functionally dead in the American South as it was mighty and vivacious in the American Northeast.

Democrat Bill Clinton took the entire Northeast in 1992 and 1996, while George W. Bush lost the entire section except New Hampshire in 2000. In 2004, the Northeast stood resolutely behind Democratic nominee John Kerry, handing him electoral majorities.