Massachusetts liberal

[2][3] It was most significantly used in the 1988 presidential race by then–Vice President George H. W. Bush against Governor Michael Dukakis, and again in the 2004 presidential race by then-President George W. Bush against Senator John Kerry (who had been Dukakis's lieutenant Governor).

In the Republican 2012 presidential primary election, Newt Gingrich used the phrase "Massachusetts moderate," based on the liberal pejorative, repeatedly against Mitt Romney,[4] the former Governor of Massachusetts, whose main residence was a mansion in the state.

[5] Romney went on to win the nomination, but lost the presidential election.

[6] It has the highest percentage of adults with college degrees of any state in the country.

Jane Elmes-Crahall, a professor who studies political rhetoric, has said, in swing and red states, "It [the phrase] still signals the antithesis of their [swing- and red-state] social and economic values."

Percent of self-identified liberals by state in 2018, according to a Gallup poll. Massachusetts had one of the highest percentages. [ 1 ]
32% and above
28–31%
24–27%
20–23%
16–19%
15% and under
The 1972 Presidential election results; Massachusetts was the only "blue state"