Which States Sent the Most Liberal Members to Congress?

America: It's blue on the outside and red and yellow in the middle.

February 21, 2013 | 7:00 a.m.

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Massachusetts is the state whose House members had the most liberal overall voting average in 2012, while Kansas boasts those with the least liberal, according to rankings compiled by National Journal.

The vast majority of the most-liberal state delegations in the House of Representatives are clustered in the Northeast of the country and out West. States with centrist and conservative delegations both vastly outnumber their liberal counterparts: There are 12 classified as liberal, 18 as conservative, and 20 that fall somewhere in between.

Most states blend in well with their neighbors, but there are a few exceptions. Conservative Indiana and South Carolina are surrounded entirely by centrist states, red New Hampshire is surrounded entirely by liberal states, and more centrist Colorado and New Mexico break up the West's red.

Graphic by Peter Bell; Text by Ben Terris

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