West Virginia for Bush

Early results are in, and President George W Bush has taken West Virginia and is projected to take Georgia, Kentucky and Indiana, while Democratic challenger John Kerry is projected to take Vermont.

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In 2000, Bush took West Virginia by a relatively narrow 6.3 per cent victory margin -- a departure for the traditionally Democratic Mountain State. Bush was the first non-incumbent Republican to carry West Virginia, with its 5 Electoral College votes, since Herbert Hoover in 1928.

Indiana is clearly Republican -- the last time it went Democratic was in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson took the state. Since then, Republicans have taken Indiana in every single election, holding it even during the landslide Clinton election of 1992 and re-election of 1996.

In 2000, Bush took this state with a 15-plus percentage point lead over Democratic candidate Al Gore; he polled 56.6 per cent of the votes to 41 per cent for Gore.

Kentucky narrowly favoured Bill Clinton in 1992 (3.2 per cent) and 1996 (1 per cent), but swung around to Bush in 2000, when the Republican candidate took the state with 56.5 per cent of the popular vote to 41.4% for Al Gore. This, despite the fact that Kentucky is the neighbour of Gore's home state of Tennessee.

Georgia went Democrat in 1980 when Jimmy Carter carried his home state in the face of a Ronald Reagan landslide.

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Again, Clinton won the state narrowly in 1992 but since then, the state has moved sharply towards the GOP, with Bush carrying the Peach State in 2000 by a margin of 11.7 per cent.

Vermont was once America's most Republican state. From Andrew Jackson to John F Kennedy, no Democrat managed to carry the Green Mountain State. But an influx of liberal-minded 'flatlanders' from nearby states transformed tiny Vermont's politics, to where it is now a sure Democratic state, with the party carrying all three elections since 1992.