WashPo.: Want To Avoid The Circus Of A Presidential Primary? Move To Oklahoma
Best state: Oklahoma
By Niraj Chokshi
You could be forgiven for 2016 campaign fatigue.
The presidential election is more than a year and seven months away, but the starter pistol has already been fired. This past week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) became the first serious contender to announce that he’s running, with several others inching toward doing the same. The race is on.
So, what’s a non-politico to do during election season? Here’s an idea: Escape to Oklahoma, the best state to get away from the political circus.
Oklahomans consistently rank near the bottom on a variety of measures of political obsession — or engagement, depending on your perspective. Only two states saw a smaller share of eligible voters cast ballots in 2012, and just seven states had a smaller share of residents registered to vote,according to census data. People in Oklahoma were 10th most likely to say they never vote in local elections, 11th most likely to say they infrequently discuss politics with family and friends, and 14th most likely to say they don’t express their political or community opinions online, according todata collected by the census in 2013.