If you don't want to write a hook then one option is to just update the name in the database so that it sorts to the top, for example:

update civicrm_state_province set name='_Washington' where name='Washington';

This might get overwritten by an upgrade if there's a change like a state gets annexed by Canada or something ... you're probably safe.

It's also possible some extensions might not work with it, but it's stored as an id not a word and the id doesn't change.

If you don't want to write a hook then one option is to just update the name in the database so that it sorts to the top, for example:

update civicrm_state_province set name='_Washington' where name='Washington';

Or equivalently update the states you don't use so they sort to the bottom, like prefix a 'Z_'.

This might get overwritten by an upgrade if there's a change like a state gets annexed by Canada or something ... you're probably safe.

It's also possible some extensions might not work with it, but it's stored as an id not a word and the id doesn't change.