State Watch

Here are the 50 legislatures ranked from most to least conservative

A new report from the Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA) has ranked all 50 states from most to least conservative, with Alabama leading as the most conservative state in the U.S. and Massachusetts as the least conservative.

The rankings from CLA, a project of the Conservative Political Action Committee and the American Conservative Union, are based on the conservative voting records of lawmakers across 186 policy categories in 2021.

For example, Alabama lawmakers voted last year with a conservative position at the highest rate, or 74 percent of the time. Massachusetts lawmakers voted with the conservative position just 15 percent of the time, the lowest rate.

Overall, the nation has grown more polarized, according to the CLA finding.

The 3,906 Republican state lawmakers in the U.S. voted conservative 80.8 percent of the time in 2021, up from 76.4 percent in 2020. 

The 3,223 Democratic state lawmakers voted conservative 15.9 percent of the time, down from 18.7 percent in 2020.

Here are the states ranked from most to least conservative.

Top 25 most conservative

  1. Alabama
  2. Tennessee
  3. Indiana
  4. South Dakota
  5. Arkansas
  6. Florida
  7. Idaho
  8. Wyoming
  9. Iowa
  10. West Virginia
  11. Oklahoma
  12. Ohio
  13. Mississippi
  14. Kentucky
  15. North Carolina
  16. Georgia
  17. North Dakota
  18. Kansas
  19. Utah
  20. Louisiana
  21. Missouri
  22. Nebraska
  23. Wisconsin
  24. Montana
  25. Michigan

Top 25 least conservative

  1. Massachusetts
  2. Hawaii
  3. Rhode Island
  4. California
  5. Maryland
  6. Vermont
  7. New York
  8. New Jersey
  9. Connecticut
  10. Oregon
  11. Nevada
  12. Colorado
  13. Delaware
  14. New Mexico
  15. Illinois
  16. Washington
  17. Maine
  18. Minnesota
  19. Virginia
  20. Alaska
  21. New Hampshire
  22. Arizona
  23. Pennsylvania
  24. South Carolina
  25. Texas