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Guys, it's literally insane to vote yes for Kansas and no for Nebraska. They are functionally the same state

To elaborate on this a little: the Midwest is states where, if you ask someone from somewhere else what the state is about, they’ll probably say “I dunno, corn?” and they’ll be right. So: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri.

This excludes states that were in the Confederacy (the South) and non-Confederate states that have a port on the East Coast or the nearest city is on the East Coast (the East Coast); it also excludes West Virginia and Kentucky, which are neither East Coast nor South but a secret third thing (Appalachia, which could include a lot of states but all the other ones fit better into another category).

The West Coast consists of states that are on the west coast: California, Oregon, and Washington.

The Southwest consists of states where they make a thing out of liking hot peppers. That’s New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. That’s it.

The Mountain West is states in the west whose main thing is mountains. That’s Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Utah. New Mexico would qualify but they prefer green chiles so they’re in the Southwest. Nevada would qualify but they de-emphasize their mountains in favor of desert and casinos, so they’re not in any subcategory of West, but they're in the West.

Also in the West but not a subcategory would be Oklahoma (unflavored Texas) and North Dakota (cold Texas).

Pretty sure I got all the lower 48 in there. Anyone answering the poll should make sure they read my comment so they can answer the poll correctly.

oh, I forgot Idaho. Mountain West, duh.

@MarkHamill It seems to me that states aligned within “Tornado Alley” qualify as Midwest— and what could be more quintessentially so than Kansas (think, The Wizard of Oz!)

Also, Kansas is just west of Missouri (which is woefully under-appreciated in this market)

@MarkHamill Tornado Alley — see Kansas !

538 did an article about this: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-states-are-in-the-midwest/

yup, though WY being midwest at >0% is ridiculous, unless you've never been there. Pittsburgh is the midwest, but not sure that should swing PA in general.

This market originated in an argument over whether Denver was in the midwest.

Denver is not midwest. In my opinion, as you travel west, the midwest ends where both irrigation and ranching dominates over non-irrigated farms -- or, alternatively, once you are in shortgrass prairie.

in the midwest, as opposed to the northeast, south, or west coast.

Way to influence the answers. If those are the other three options, obviously landlocked Nevada or Montana are not on the West Coast.

The wording of the poll will be exactly the same as this question.

But… the Rocky Mountain states while not flanking the Pacific are well-known cowboy and/or Sonoran Desert and/or “Out West” states (imho 😃)