Patriotism Isn’t Just A Red State Story

SITUATION:

Conservative states are often assumed to lead the country in patriotism. Small towns with flags on nearly every porch, families with generations of military service, and Fourth of July parades that shut down Main Street all fit the picture people commonly associate with red America.

Blue states, by contrast, are often described as more skeptical of the country than proud of it. That messaging shows up regularly in GOP campaign ads and right-leaning cable news commentary, where a state’s voting record gets treated as a measure of how patriotic its residents are.

THE TRUTH:

New research from WalletHub tested that assumption directly. Using 2026 data across 13 factors, including military enlistment, veteran population, voter turnout, jury service, and volunteer work through programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, researchers scored every state from 0 to 100.

Virginia ranked first overall. Nearly 1,761 of every 100,000 civilians there are active-duty military, the third-highest rate in the country, and the state has the second-highest number of veterans per capita nationwide. This makes sense considering Virginia’s proximity to our nation’s capital and high concentration of government agencies and facilities.

Montana had the second-highest overall patriotism score, driven by strong voter turnout and the highest jury service rate in the country. Vermont ranked third, largely on the strength of its volunteer numbers and Peace Corps participation.

The study also found that states which voted Democratic in 2024 averaged a patriotism rank of 21.21, while states that voted Republican averaged 28.13, with 1 representing the “most patriotic” overall score. On these specific metrics, Democratic-voting states scored higher as a group.

That average does not tell the full story, however. Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana post some of the highest veteran and military enlistment rates per capita in the country. Alaska ranks first nationally for veterans as a share of its population, according to separate data from World Population Review. Those figures reflect small states with high per capita rates rather than an aggregate size advantage over the states that scored higher overall.

Voter turnout data adds further nuance. Montana’s 69.2 percent turnout in the 2024 presidential election exceeded the national average, and its 2020 primary turnout of nearly 46 percent was the highest of any state in the country. Those numbers do not divide cleanly along party lines.

Actions and perceptions about patriotism differ, however.

A Pew Research Center survey from late 2025 found that what Americans say makes them proud of their country increasingly splits by party. The WalletHub findings suggest that when patriotism is measured through participation and service rather than opinion, the results do not track as closely with politics as commonly assumed.

WHY IT MATTERS:

Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana continue to post some of the highest rates of per capita military and veteran participation in the country, showing that rural and conservative communities remain deeply connected to military service. That tradition holds regardless of how any single ranking totals out.

At the same time, the data shows that civic participation, voting, jury service, and volunteering do not sort cleanly by political affiliation. States on both sides of the aisle show strong numbers in different categories, and no single region holds a monopoly on service to country or community.

The WalletHub rankings measure specific, countable actions rather than sentiment or rhetoric. Enlistment records, veteran counts, voter turnout figures, and volunteer hours are documented data points, not opinions about who loves their country more. Those categories offer one way to look past assumptions built on how a state votes and toward what its residents actually do.

SOURCES:

• WalletHub, “Most Patriotic States in America (2026),” https://wallethub.com/edu/most-patriotic-states/13680
• HuffPost, “New Research Reveals The Least Patriotic States Of 2026,” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/patriotism-states-ranked-goog_l_6a4576ede4b001e08fc07e0b
• Escalon Times, “Virginia takes top spot in patriotic state survey,” https://www.escalontimes.com/news/virginia-takes-top-spot-in-patriotic-state-survey/
• World Population Review, “Most Patriotic Countries 2026,” https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-patriotic-countries