New York

NEW YORK WAS the largest state in population from the 1810 census until the 1970 census and was one of the most important states politically until recently. Although only third in population after Virginia and Pennsylvania at ratification of the Constitution, and tied for third with Massachusetts in 1800, New York took the lead in 1810 and, within a few decades, had one in six seats in the House of Representatives. This primacy diminished as the rest of the country grew, but New York remained the largest state until the late 1960s when California surpassed it. It is now the third most populous state, after California and Texas, with Florida not far behind.

Even as New York State's dominance declined beginning in the mid-19th century, New York City's primacy grew. The prominence of having the country's largest city is perhaps the only thing left that keeps New York politics in the national spotlight. New York was the biggest prize in the era when it was both the largest state and a politically competitive one, but in the current period, New York has become utterly unimportant in national politics because it is reliably Democratic in national politics and less important by dint of its numbers.

New York has produced seven presidents: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard M. Nixon. New York has also produced a large number of unsuccessful presidential candidates, including George Clinton, Horatio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden, Charles Evans Hughes, Alfred E. Smith, Thomas E. Dewey, W Averell Harriman, and Nelson A. Rockefeller. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.