As the 2024 US presidential season gathers steam with the official entry of Ron DeSantis as a Republican candidate on May 24, the odds are against him not only because of his already troubled campaign and Disney-hating, book-banning, homophobia, but also because no Florida politician has ever been elected president. Florida is well positioned to produce a president: it’s one of the most populous states in the country with an older demographic that is more likely to vote, making it a swing state. However, every single nominee from the state has ended up a dud before the nominating convention like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, an outcome known as “the curse of the Florida Man”.
Only 17 states have produced presidents in all of US history. Virginia has produced the most, at 8 presidents since the establishment of the country. Following closely behind is Ohio with 7 presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding.
The country did not have 50 states until 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii joined the US. Since then, 11 states have produced US presidents: Massachusetts, Texas, New York, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, and Nebraska. No candidates from Washington, D.C., which is not a state, but is a place where one could nurture White House ambitions, have become president.
States that have consistently produced presidents
Only two states have transcended time with presidents in both early and modern US history: Massachusetts and New York. Massachusetts gave the US John Adams, the second president in US history after George Washington, and his eldest son John Quincy Adams. But Massachusetts also produced John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush. The only modern president New York has produced is Donald Trump, but historically the state gave the US Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Texas, Vermont, and North Carolina have produced two presidents each. James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson came from North Carolina, while Chester A. Arthur and Calvin Coolidge came from Vermont. Texas, which joined the US just nine months after Florida, produced the presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson—before you protest the omission, remember, George W. Bush was born in Connecticut.