hi dig,
if texas goes with the mid-west, then that new country has an outlet to the ocean, to mexico and to canada.
my west coast country includes wa, or, ca, nv, az, co and nm (so the south west ends up with the coastal group).
my north east country includes the blue states in the next to last election, so i am roughly including the great lakes states, the rust belt and new england.
my deep south country includes most of the states of the old south plus florida (i'm vacillating on west virginia but it would probably want to go south).
this makes the mid-west everything else between montana and texas, including kansas and oklahoma and folding around co to utah.
these are all big countries, both in terms of landmass and population. a few states that are lately blue end up red and vice versa. but contiguousness is important and arizona, say, is in the middle of western blueland, and indiana is the corridor state between the rust belt and new england.
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