Connecticut was won by Vice PresidentAl Gore by a 17.5% margin of victory. Gore's vice presidential running mate, Joe Lieberman, had been a U.S. Senator from Connecticut since 1989. Connecticut had also been the birth state of Republican nominee George W. Bush, however as a presidential candidate Bush identified his home state as Texas, where he was governor, and he did not attempt to compete in Connecticut. Connecticut is considered a safe Democratic state, having not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since Bush's father George H. W. Bush in 1988. Connecticut is also the birth state of Bush and major Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without Fairfield County since James A. Garfield in 1880, and the first since 1876 to win without Litchfield County. This was also the first election since 1976 when Connecticut failed to support the overall winner of the electoral college, and presidency. Bush became the first Republican to win without Connecticut since 1968.
Connecticut was one of ten states that backed George H. W. Bush for president in 1988 that didn't back George W. Bush in either 2000 or 2004.
