Pretty tricky! I loved this one, which surprised me. Only nits: didn't take "states named after people", which I only said because I didn't want to say royalty for Washington's sake. For NM, FL, etc. I said states with large Latin(o,a,x,e) population, not sure if that's too generic for you. And after those great, specific categories, "two word states" left me a little bereft. I was trying to guess a connection more in line with the other three.

But great grid! One of the rare ones I like where all the answers are from a single category.