What’s the most conservative state?

Only a review of hundreds of laws can answer that, because election results only tell you how easily the GOP wins elections in your state, not how conservative your state laws are. Fortunately, that was done by a couple of libertarians using 2022 data. We modified their “personal freedom” index to show conservatism instead. We also updated the abortion status to 2026. We did not modify their “economic freedom” index, because it is the same as economic conservatism, fiscal & regulatory.

So what’s the reddest red state? Could be Arkansas or Florida, depending on whether social or economic conservatism is more important to you in state law. Just because your state votes very Republican, doesn’t mean your state’s law will be very conservative. Hardly any voters have seen an evaluation of their states’ thousands of laws, so the Alaska, Montana, Utah & Nevada GOP’s failure isn’t well known.

Wyoming, North Dakota, & West Virginia hardly have any Dems in their state legislatures, yet they’re weak on delivering conservative state law. Look at the ratio of conservative law to GOP election results in the right-hand columns. Those 3 states are blue (weak) there. All the graphs above graph the 2 middle columns of this spreadsheet.

A bare majority of the vote is enough to make a state’s laws conservative. Kudos to the GOP’s of New Hampshire, Arizona, Wisconsin & Florida. And after this 2022 data was reviewed, Florida & Texas passed a lot more conservative laws.

70% of US voters call themselves not conservative, but moderate or liberal, according to polls. To win elections, the GOP formed a coalition with moderate voters, donors, & business interests to win elections. Especially donors, because $ is what wins elections. Also, some liberal or un-ideological politicians call themselves R’s to get power & wealth, but manage to win party primary elections due to a lack of research by primary voters. Once they have power, they can use it as leverage to pressure groups to endorse them.

If your state laws aren’t conservative enough, support the State Freedom Caucus Network in your state. Also, support the Texas Nationalist Movement or Free Louisiana to lead all red states out of the Union, so conservatives won’t need a coalition with moderates to win. No blue states. Then Leftists will emigrate out of the seceding red states, and blue-state conservatives will move in.

If more liberals knew how conservative Arizona, Florida, Texas & Tennessee law is compared to other states, fewer would move there. Arizona is a swing state, so it’s important to scare more libtards away. Texas will become one soon if it doesn’t secede.

This analysis is not nearly as conclusive as I’d like. The only laws or policies considered are the ones libertarians chose for their “Freedom in the 50 states” website. It focuses on individual liberty, not states’ rights or civilizational health.

Their spreadsheet is available at their site. I reversed the signs of some of their measures & changed some of the weights, to make their “personal freedom” index into a “social conservatism” index. Then added 2026 abortion status. I didn’t change their economic freedom index.

Congratulations to Arkansas, Arizona, & Louisiana for rating most socially conservative on this index! Arizona would have won, but it allows abortions at any age with a “mental health of the mother” excuse, like Montana, Alaska, Michigan, Nevada, Virginia, & many others.

According to these libertarians, who seem rather left-leaning, the most libertarian state laws are as shown below.

If you think you have a better ranking of the conservatism of state law, let us know. I’d be interested in hearing your observations on all this data. The comment section of this site does work, but the comments only appear after I approve them when I occasionally log in.