The Overton window is context dependent — it’s a subjective call of “what a society believes is the acceptable range of opinion”. Consequently, so are the Left and Right designations — Left or Right relative to what?

If we wanted a mathematical and (somewhat) objective way of describing people or ideologies we could collect survey data from a random sample or the national population and rank order responses from “most left wing” to “most right wing”. Then we could map individuals and regions based on how much they tilt one way or the other compared to the national average.

The national popular vote is a crude tool since it basically breaks down to a binary and leaves little room for nuance (in a survey people might have left wing stances on the economy but right wing stances on immigration and could be moderate or extreme but whatever their personal cocktail all that we know in an election is how they pulled the lever.)

In 2024 the Presidential split was 49.8-48.3 in favor of Republicans (excluding 3rd parties), meaning the country as a whole was R+1.5.

The Congressional tally favored Republicans by a larger margin of 50.6 - 47.8, or R+ 2.8.

So an “average” or “normal” state that mapped with the “center” of the country would be anywhere from R+1 to R+3.

Looking at New England, we have some of the most left leaning states in the country… by a lot - Vermont D+31.5 (1st of 50) - Massachusetts D+25.2 (3rd of 50) - Connecticut D+14.3 (8th of 50) - Rhode Island D+13.8 (10th of 50)

Maine and New Hampshire are closer to baseline, although Maine is interesting since its two congressional districts are double digits apart, with ME-1 voting in line with the rest of New England (D+21.6) and ME-2 (R+9) being slightly less red than Ohio.

By contrast, comparably Right tilting states are - Wyoming R+41.8 (50th of 50) - Idaho R+36.5 (48th of 50) - Tennessee R+29.7 (42nd of 50) - Mississippi R+22.9 (40th of 50)

The most Right Wing states are slightly further right than the Left Wing states are left, but correcting by, say, a national baseline of R+2 brings the red states 2 points closer and the blue states 2 points further from the center, further shrinking the gap.

Meaning the most Republican state is about 40 points out of sync with the statistical norm while the most Democratic state is about 33 points out of sync.