If you want to be the President of the United States you need to win West Virginia.
West Virginia may be small with only five delegates in the Electoral College but those five votes are critical.
In 2000, if Al Gore had won historically Democratic-leaning West Virginia the Florida Recount mess would have never been an factor.
It wouldn't have mattered and we probably would have never heard about the infamous "butterfly ballots" in Florida or the hanging chads.
George W. Bush won 271-266 with the Florida recount and the victory in West Virginia.
Had Gore won West Virginia it would have been a 10-point swing with Gore winning the presidency by the same 271-266 count.
Bush then swept to an even wider victory over John Kerry in the 2004 Election in the Mountain State.
Two presidential elections in a row for the Republicans.
Is the state of West Virginia trending Republican in national elections?
This point was driven home Monday by Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton in her campaign stop at the Logan Middle School gym on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary.
"No Democrat has been elected in the last 100 years without carrying West Virginia," Clinton told the packed crowd at the LMS gym. "We will send a clear message that West Virginia has a record for picking presidents."
Clinton won a resounding victory over Barack Obama in Tuesday's Mountain State primary. With votes from 98 percent of West Virginia's precincts counted, Clinton was winning 67 percent of the vote, to 26 percent for Obama. Clinton won 20 of the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia and Obama won eight.
That left Obama with 1,883.5 delegates, to 1,717 for Clinton, out of 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination at the party convention in Denver this summer. Clinton's smashing victory in West Virginia turned into a rout in Logan and surrounding counties.
In Logan County, Clinton won 84 percent of the vote to just 11 percent for Obama. Clinton took 8,617 votes to just 1,085 for the Illinois Senator. The most lopsided victory was in Mingo County where Clinton won by a margin of 88-8. Clinton grabbed 7,813 votes in Mingo to only 712 for Obama.
Clinton also won easily in surrounding counties Lincoln (79-13), Wyoming (80-11) and Boone (79-14).
It came as no surprise Clinton chose to come to Logan County Monday a day before the primary. She was coming home to the state's party base and her base.
With around a 10-1 advantage in registered Democrats over Republicans in Logan County, the area and its surrounding counties have been a Democratic party stronghold for decades no matter if the state went red or blue.
That point is most emphasized by the 1972 Election - a landslide in which Republican President Richard Nixon swept to a 520-17 victory in the Electoral College over Democratic candidate George McGovern of Massachusetts. In the election, McGovern was only able to carry his home state and the District of Columbia.
Nixon won West Virginia in 1972 by a comfortable margin - 63.6 percent to 36.4 percent (484,964 votes to 277,435) but McGovern and running mate R. Sargent Shriver were able to carry one single Mountain State county - Logan County - 10,045 to 9,533 votes. McGovern made a stop in Logan during the '72 campaign.
Historically, Logan County is considered the leap pad for John F. Kennedy's bid for the White House. Kennedy made several stops in and around Logan, talked door to door to area citizens and made a visit to the old Smokehouse restaurant in downtown Logan. Many had thought at the time Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, had little chance of winning West Virginia, a largely Protestant state. JFK, though, carried West Virginia in the primary by beating Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and then defeating Nixon in the general election by a margin of 52.7 percent to 47.3. Kennedy carried Logan County easily (16,360 votes to 7,836) and almost all of the southern and eastern counties and also won all of the northern panhandle and the counties around Morgantown.
Kennedy's brother, Robert, made another historic Logan campaign stop during the 1968 Election season before his assassination.
Then in 2000, brother Ted Kennedy rallied in Logan for Al Gore at the Logan Memorial Fieldhouse along with Senators Byrd and Rockefeller.
Ted Kennedy made another brief visit to downtown Logan in 2004, stumping for fellow Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
Clinton, the New York Senator, made the latest historic visit to Logan on Monday.
Despite trailing 1,592 to 1,424 in the latest pledged delegate count to Illinois Senator Barack Obama, 1,869 to 1,697 in the total delegates and 277-273 in the Superdelegate ledger, Clinton is expected to win by a wide margin in today's West Virginia primary. In the latest Rasmussen poll, Clinton led Obama 56-27 in the Mountain State. Another poll had Clinton winning 66-23.
Only Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota are left in the primary season. Montana and South Dakota hold their primaries last on June 3. Kentucky and Oregon are next on May 20 with a total of 103 delegates at stake.
Many are calling for Clinton to pull out of the race - if not now, certainly after all the votes have been counted on June 3.
But neither Obama or Clinton will likely reach the magic number of 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. Then there is the debacle over the superdelegates and the mess in Florida and Michigan.
So what is Clinton to do?
Carry on and fight to the end. That was the message that many in the Logan Middle School gymnasium crowd urged Clinton to do.
"So far neither candidate has got to the magic number, so why quit?" said Logan County Commissioner Art Kirkendoll in a short prelude speech before Clinton took to the stage at LMS on Monday. "I think Hillary Clinton will win West Virginia with more than 70 percent and then she's going to win Kentucky."
Chandra Massner, a Pikeville College professor in Pikeville, Ky., also urged Clinton to stay in the race until the bitter end.
"It's so close to the end, she might as well stick it out to the end. She has stuck it out this long, why quit?" said Massner, who drove 70 miles to attend the Clinton rally. "She's going to take West Virginia and Kentucky by huge margins. If she gets a lot of people to come out in those states and vote for her she could narrow the gap in the popular vote and make a strong statement."
Despite being from across the Tug, Massner said she sees the historic importance of Clinton's visit to the region. She took her 10-year-old daughter Amanda out of school just to see the former First Lady. "I think that it's quite and honor for our region to host a former First Lady who is running for president," Massner said. "I think that it shows she really does care about the hard-working people of the region. I brought my daughter as an educational experience. That's why I took her out of school and drove all the way here. Former First Lady's and presidential candidates rarely come to small towns, especially around here because West Virginia and Kentucky normally don't matter. They do now."
Massner's daughter Amanda, wearing a Hillary Clinton sticker on her jacket, said it was different to see the former First Lady in person.
"I think it's neat to see her in person because I've always seen her on TV," she said.
Despite being largely made up of socially conservative constituents, Logan County had voted for the Democratic candidate every election since 1960, according to uselectionaltlas.org.
In Lyndon Johnson's landslide win over Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona in 1964, LBJ took West Virginia 67.9 percent to 32.1 and breezed in Logan County, 16,999 votes to 3,776.
In 1968 following Robert Kennedy's assassination, Vice President Humphrey won West Virginia by a 49.6 to 40.8 margin over Nixon and also won Logan County, 13,686 votes to 4,754. Alabama Gov. George Wallace, running on a third-party ticket, took 9.6 percent of the state vote and registered 1,861 votes in Logan County.
Later in 1976, Democratic Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia easily defeated President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan in the Mountain State by a margin of 58.1 percent to 41.9. Carter easily won Logan County (13,122 votes to 4,021) and only lost 11 total counties. In the trend of the time, Carter swept the entire South, only losing Virginia to Ford.
Then in 1980 came a switch to the South with the much documented "Reagan Democrats." Former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California scored a 489-49 landslide in the Electoral College and won every state with the exception of Carter's home state of Georgia, running-mate Walter Mondale's home state of Minnesota, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Rhode Island and West Virginia. Carter won in the Mountain State by a margin of 49.8 percent to 45.3 percent and took Logan (12,024 votes to 4,945) and most surrounding southern West Virginia and eastern West Virginia counties. Reagan was strongest along the Ohio River and in the eastern panhandle.
Then in the historic 1984 Election came the Reagan re-election landslide in which former Vice President Mondale was only able to carry his home state of Minnesota and D.C. and was trounced 525-13 in the Electoral College. Reagan won West Virginia comfortably, 55.1 to 44.6, but again, Logan County went blue for the Democrats and Carter in relative ease, 10,892 votes to 6,425. Carter also won the southern West Virginia counties of Mingo, Boone, Lincoln, Wyoming and McDowell.
In the 1988 Election, West Virginia again went blue for the Democrats with Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts. Dukakis lost 426-111 to Vice President George H.W. Bush in the Electoral College and was only able to win nine states and the District of Columbia. But, once again, Logan County went to the Democrats by a wide margin - 11,317 votes to 4,244.
The 1992 campaign saw an end of the Republican's 12-year reign on the White House with the election of Democratic Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's 370-168 victory over President Bush. Clinton won despite only getting 43 percent of the national popular vote. Bush received 37.5 percent and third-party candidate H. Ross Perot of Texas won another 19 percent. Clinton, and running mate Al Gore, took West Virginia easily - 48.4 percent to Bush's 35.4 and Perot's 15.9 percent. Clinton carried Logan County by a margin of 11,095 votes to Bush's 3,336 and 1,835 for Perot.
In 1996, Clinton won a re-election landslide victory over Kansas Republican Senator Bob Dole, 379-159, in the Electoral College. Clinton took West Virginia with 51.5 percent of the vote. Dole had 36.8 percent and Perot another 11 percent. In Logan County, Clinton won handily with 10,840 votes. Dole garnered just 2,627 and Perot 1,532. Nationally, Clinton did not reach the 50 percent plateau for a second straight election with just 49.2 percent of the popular vote to Dole's 40.7 and Perot's 8.4 percent.
In the controversial and disputed 2000 Election Gov. George W. Bush of Texas won 271-266 over Gore in the Electoral College after the Florida Recount. Gore won the popular vote nationally, 48.4 percent to Bush's 47.9. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader took 2.7 percent and Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party polled less than 1 percent. Gore lost West Virginia but won Logan County by a comfortable margin. Bush beat Gore 52-46 percent in the state but Gore won 8,927 county votes to 5,334 for the Texas Governor. Nader took only 88 votes in the county.
Bush again took West Virginia in the 2004 Election over Kerry, winning by a wider 56-43 percent count. In Logan County, the Republicans also seemed to continue to close the gap as Kerry beat Bush 7,877 to 7,047 votes. Kerry only won nine West Virginia counties, including neighboring Mingo, Boone and McDowell and also Braxton, Brooke, Fayette, Marion and Webster counties. In neighboring Lincoln County Kerry lost to Bush by only 54 votes out of more than 8,000 cast.
No county-by-county information was available prior to the 1960 Election.
Counting the 2000, 2004, 1984 and 1972 elections, West Virginia had only voted Republican one other time since the 1920s.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the Mountain State in his re-election landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.
In 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover beat Democrat Alfred Smith, 58-41.
In 1924, the GOP's Calvin Coolidge won 49-44 over John Davis in West Virginia.
In 1920, Republican Warren Harding won 55-43 over James Cox.
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