A hybrid approach, for 110 109 (including the honorary state KT). 
print

/^\w\w\z/&("MNCAKSCOHINMOKTNVALARIDCTX SDE GAZ ORIL"=~/$_/|
/(FL|IA|KY|M[ADEIST]|N[DEHNJY]|PA|[UV]T|W[AIVY])/)

for qw(AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS
       KT KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM
       NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV
       WY)

[download]
Getting here involved finding the longest unbroken string that could hold overlapping state names, adding a few more with breaks (spaces), then handling the strays with a regexp. A close inspection will show that Rhode Island is handled twice. That actually saved strokes.

I started down the path of looking for the shortest string that contains all of the state names (with breaks). That script is still running... So far, the solution above is shorter.

In reply to Re: Golf challange: match U.S. State names by dws
in thread Golf challange: match U.S. State names by John M. Dlugosz

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