If I'm being totally honest, I kinda think that US "states," in general, are totally arbitrary geographical delineations that have almost no real social or economic significance. There's something bizarre about the fact that we reverse-engineer so much policy based on them.
If you want to have coherent sub-national units, with actual discernible histories, characteristics, & interests, it seems like you'd look to metro clusters.
Final gripe: for all the whinging from rural folks about being "heard" etc etc., one of the most common conversations in my career is: city officials frustrated that they can't control their own fate b/c they're governed by state gov'ts dominated by rural interests.
Almost ALL US cities are like this. By wildly over-privileging rural areas, we are also under-privileging cities. And cities are where technological & social innovation happen, where trade & commerce happen, where the future is taking shape.
The future is urban, and the political system of the most powerful advanced democracy in the world is completely preoccupied with the social grievances of rural white people who hate cities. It's farcical.
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