2020 Presidential Candidate State Strongholds

Maps that depict which states lean red and which states lean blue are common, but how do third party and independent candidates fare among the states? Because our broken plurality voting system disenfranchises parties outside of the two-party duopoly, the maps that we see that depict voting strength typically don’t include such outsiders.

The Wikipedia page on 2020 third party and independent candidates offers a great deal of detail about the candidates and how they did in the 2020 presidential election. From the raw data one can calculate quite simply what proportion of the national popular vote was received by each candidate. The respective percentages in each state can be determined, and in each state the candidate with the highest strength relative to that candidates own national strength can be determined.

For example, Kanye West received 0.045% of the national popular vote. In Utah he receive 0.479% of the vote. That is 1057% of his national average and this is higher than the relative increase of any other candidate within the state. This can be determined for each state, and for each state, a single candidate can be determined that shows the highest strength (relative to their own respective average). This makes for a map that is much more interesting than they typical red and blue maps.

Note that the color selection for the candidates was taken from Wikipedia, and some differences in color (between Hawkins and Pierce, Trump and La Riva, West and Blankenship) may not be particularly easy to see.

Also note that Biden isn’t in the list. Though he had enough votes to win the election, he didn’t show a particularly high strength in any one state relative to his national average.