Map of results by state of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, representing states won by the Democrats as blue and those won by the Republican Party as red.

Map of results by state of the 2000 U.S. presidential election reflect current practice, representing states won by the Republicans with red, and states won by the Democrats with blue.

Red States and Blue States refer to those states whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican Party or Democratic Party presidential candidates respectively. The term began to emerge in mainstream political discussion following the 2000 presidential election. However, the term gained ubiquitous status after the 2004 presidential elections.(See Origins of current color scheme) Red denotes Bush-Cheney wins. ... Red denotes Bush-Cheney wins. ... Presidential election results map. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3697x2472, 669 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: U.S. presidential election, 2000 2000 ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3697x2472, 669 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: U.S. presidential election, 2000 2000 ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties/Parishes/Boroughs, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of... The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ... This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Presidential election results map. ... Map of results by state of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, representing states won by the Democrats as blue and those won by the Republican Party as red. ...

Details on the actual electoral geography can be found at Electoral geography of the United States. This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

The divide

The maps that have emerged from recent U.S. elections follow a sharply-defined geographical pattern. The Red states tend to fall in the South, the Great Plains, and the Intermountain West, with the Blue states in the Northeast, the Great Lakes Region and the West Coast. Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Historic Southern United States. ... The Great Plains covers much of the central United States, portions of Canada and Mexico. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Regional definitions vary The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. ... The Great Lakes region can refer to: The Great Lakes region of North America The Great Lakes region of Africa This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ...

The county-by-county and district-by-district maps reveal that the true nature of the divide is between urban areas/inner suburbs and outer suburbs/rural areas. In "solidly Blue" states, most of the counties outside the major heavily urban areas voted for Bush. In "solidly Red" states, most of the urban areas voted for John Kerry (with exceptions of Dallas; Houston; Phoenix; San Antonio; Salt Lake City; Colorado Springs; Oklahoma City; Tulsa; Wichita; Cincinnati; Omaha, NE; Virginia Beach; Birmingham, Alabama; Jacksonville; and Tampa.) A political phenemona in which the people of urban areas of a state or its subdivisions vote for a different political party or interest than the people of rural areas. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Country United States State Texas Counties Dallas, Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall Incorporated 2 February 1856 Government  - Mayor Laura Miller (D)[1] Area  - City  385. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Country United States State Texas Counties Harris County Fort Bend County Montgomery County Incorporated June 5, 1837 Government  - Mayor Bill White Area  - City  601. ... Nickname: Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Coordinates: Country United States State Arizona Counties Maricopa Incorporated February 25, 1881 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Phil Gordon (D) Area  - City  515. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Counties Bexar County Government  - Mayor Phil Hardberger Area  - City  412. ... The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Salt Lake Citys top tourist draw. ... Colorado Springs is a middle-sized city, located just east of the geographic center of the state of Colorado in the United States. ... Downtown Oklahoma City The State Capitol of Oklahoma From The South Motto: Nickname: Capital of the New Century Founded 1889 Incorporated County Oklahoma County Cleveland County Canadian County Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Mick Cornett Area  - Total  - Water 1,608. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Oklahoma Coordinates: Country United States State Oklahoma Counties Tulsa, Osage, Wagoner, Rogers Government  - Mayor Kathy Taylor (D) Area  - City  186. ... Nickname: The Air Capital, The Peerless City Location in the state of Kansas County Sedgwick Government  - Mayor Carlos Mayans Area  - City 359. ... Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ... Nickname: Gateway to the West Location in Nebraska Coordinates: Country United States State Nebraska County Douglas Founded 1854 Incorporated 1857 Government  - Mayor Michael Fahey (D) Area  - City  118. ... Location in the Commonwealth o Virginia. ... Nickname: Location in Jefferson County in the state of Alabama Coordinates: Country United States State Alabama County Jefferson, Shelby Government  - Mayor Bernard Kincaid (D) Area  - City  151. ... Motto: Where Florida Begins Location in the state of Florida Coordinates: Country United States State Florida County Duval Government  - Mayor John Peyton (R) Area  - City  885 sq mi (2,264. ... Nickname: Location in Hillsborough County and the state of Florida. ...

Red states and Blue states have several demographic differences from each other. The association between colors and demographics was notably made in a column by Mike Barnicle, and reinforced in a controversial response from Paul Begala (though the association between demographics and voting patterns was well known before that). A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. ... Michael Barnicle (born August 24, 1944 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a radio talk show host in the Boston area with a daily program on WTKK 96. ... Paul Begala (born May 12, 1961) is a political consultant, a commentator, and a former advisor to President Bill Clinton. ...

It is a common misconception that the blue states are the rich and well educated portion of the country, while the red states are the mostly poor, uneducated portion that consists of only white trash people. However, the 2004 election exit polls have shown that even though it is only a slight difference; the Bush voters tended to consist of the richer class with higher employment rates as well as having the higher amount of high school and college graduates. While the Republicans did receive the large majority of the rural, sparsely populated areas; they also won the majority of the suburban areas in most every state, red and blue. The suburbs contain most of the middle and upper class and are predominantly white. People living in the suburbs usually tend to be wealthier and have highier education levels than those living in the urban inner cities and rural country-side. White trash is a racist slur with a classist component targeted almost exclusively at non-Latino white people and connoting low social status or poor prospects (i. ... The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ... Sign in a rural area in Dalarna, Sweden Qichun, a rural town in Hubei province, China An artists rendering of an aerial view of the Maryland countryside: Jane Frank (Jane Schenthal Frank, 1918-1986), Aerial Series: Ploughed Fields, Maryland, 1974, acrylic and mixed materials on apertured double canvas, 52... Illustration of the backyards of a surburban neighbourhood Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. ... A monument to the working and supporting classes along Market Street in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District, home to tens-of-thousands of professional and managerial middle class workers each day. ... The American upper class described the sociological ideology concerning the status of the top layer of society in the United States. ... The term White American officially refers to people of European, Middle Eastern, and North African descent residing in the United States. ... The term inner-city is often applied to the poorer parts at the centre of a major city. ...

While it is true that the Democrats did win the large majority of the heavily urban areas, it does not mean that the voters were all wealthy with higher education levels than those who voted for the Republicans. In fact, the areas in which Democratic voters are the highest are the highly populated, poor, inner city areas that have large black or African-American populations. These areas are often stricken with crime, poverty, low education attainment, drug dealing, and a high percentage of single parents whom receive welfare. Just as Republicans held the more suburban and rural areas of both the red and blue states, the Democrats received the large majority of the urban city areas in all the states. This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Crowded Shibuya, Tokyo shopping district An urban area is an area with an increased density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. ... A Masai man in Kenya Black people or blacks is a political, social or cultural classification of people. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ...

An exception to all of this however, are the New England, San Francisco Bay, and Seattle areas which are largely made up of very wealthy, white, college educated peoples whom vote very liberal Democratic. This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... USGS satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... The Seattle metropolitan area includes the city of Seattle, Washington; King County, Washington; and several surrounding cities and counties in the Puget Sound area. ...

Purple States

2004 United States presidential election results by county, on a color spectrum from Democratic blue to Republican red

The political and demographic applications of the terms have led to a temptation to presume this arbitrary classification is a clear-cut and fundamental cultural division. Given the general nature and common perception of the two parties, "red state" implies a conservative region or a more conservative type of American, and "blue state" implies a liberal region or a more liberal type of American. But the distinction between the two groups of states is hardly so simplistic. The analysis that suggests political, cultural, and demographic differences between the states is more accurate when applied to smaller geographical areas. Pennsylvania, for example, shows "red" characteristics in the Westsylvania interior, but "blue" characteristics around the urban centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Democratic political consultant James Carville has described Pennsylvania as "Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between," suggesting that Pennsylvania, like several other blue states, would be solid red without its cities, due to its remainder's rural and religious, and thus socially conservative, nature. Presidential popular votes by county. ... Presidential popular votes by county. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The optical spectrum (light or visible spectrum) is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. ... This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Blue (from Old High German blao shining) is one of the three primary additive colors; blue light has the shortest wavelength (about 470 nm) of the three primary colors. ... The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ... Red re-directs here; for alternate uses see Red (disambiguation) Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Westsylvania was a name suggested for an unrealized 14th state of the United States; it was to include southwestern Pennsylvania, the western panhandle of Maryland, nearly the whole of what is now West Virginia, a small part of what is now Virginia, and a small part of eastern Kentucky. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... Nickname: Steel City, Iron City, Steel Town, City of Champions, City of Bridges, City of Colleges, The Burgh Motto: Benigno Numine (With the Benevolent Deity) Location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Allegheny County Founded November 25, 1758 Incorporated April 22, 1794 (borough)   March 18... James Carville (born October 25, 1944), is a liberal American political consultant, commentator, media personality, and pundit. ... Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area  Ranked 30th  - Total 52,419 sq mi (135,765 km²)  - Width 190 miles (306 km)  - Length 330 miles (531 km)  - % water 3. ...

Cartogram of the United States, showing each county with a size proportional to its population. The colors refer to 2004 presidential election results.

Traditionally, the practice of designating a U.S. state as "red" or "blue" is based on the winner-take-all system employed for presidential elections by 48 of the 50 U.S. states (Nebraska and Maine being the exceptions), and the District of Columbia. Presidential popular votes cartogram, in which the sizes of counties have been rescaled according to their population. ... Presidential popular votes cartogram, in which the sizes of counties have been rescaled according to their population. ... Cartogram for the U.S. presidential election, 2004. ... ...

Despite the prevalent winner-take-all practice, the minority always gets a sizeable vote. Because of this, a third term has emerged, referring to these closely-divided states as purple states. Furthermore, it could be argued that all states are "purple" to varying degrees and that the "red vs. blue" division is far from an accurate description of US culture.

All states were consistent in voting for George W. Bush or his challenger in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections except for three: New Mexico (Gore in '00 and Bush in '04), Iowa (Gore in '00 and Bush in '04) and New Hampshire (Bush in '00 and Kerry in '04). The 2004 election showed two of these three states to be true to the presidential preferences of their respective regions, creating a greater regional separation; thus, an argument that the country is more divided from the 2000 election. All three of those states were very close in both elections. Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Official language(s) English Capital Concord Largest city Manchester Area  Ranked 46th  - Total 9,359 sq mi (24,239 km²)  - Width 68 miles (110 km)  - Length 190 miles (305 km)  - % water 3. ...

Polarization

The division between red states and blue states has triggered a pronounced introspection among blue staters and red staters. Feelings of cultural and political polarization, which have gained increased media attention since the 2004 election, have led to increased mutual feelings of alienation and enmity. These attitudes have led to the often jocular suggestion that a red state-blue state secession is in order. The Jesusland map is one such joke, a satirical map that redraws the U.S.-Canada border to reflect this sociopolitical schism. In politics, polarization is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. ... The Jesusland map. ... 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ...

The polarization has been present for only two close elections (2000 and 2004). In the 1996 election, 31 U.S. states were "blue" and 19 "red" (though at the time the colors were not used consistently by the major networks). One thing that has been more consistent over this period is that the average "blue" state has a greater number of people and electoral votes than does the average "red" state. (When George W. Bush won 31 states in 2004, he gathered 286 electoral votes — an average of 9 electoral votes for each state won. When Bill Clinton won 31 states in 1996, he tallied 379 electoral votes — an average of 12 electoral votes per state carried.) George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ...

Viewing the nation as divided into two camps requires ignoring the largest single group of Americans: those who don't vote. In the 2000 election only about 54 percent of eligible voters were motivated enough to vote. In 2004, after the loudest, most-expensive get-out-the-vote campaigns by both ideological camps, the percentage who voted rose only a few points. Hence 2004 set an all-time national record with more than 80 million eligible voters taking a pass, far more than voted for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.

In fact, no Republican or Democratic nominee has attracted as much as 30 percent of eligible voters since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981 – 1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967 – 1975). ...

Origins of current color scheme

Prior to the 2000 presidential election, there was no universally recognized color scheme to represent political parties in the USA. The practice of using colors to represent parties on electoral maps dates back at least as far as the 1950s, when such a format was employed within the Hammond series of historical atlases.^{[citation needed]} Color-based schemes became more widespread with the adoption of color television in the 1960s and nearly ubiquitous with the advent of color in newspapers. A three-color scheme -- red, white and blue, the colors of the U.S. flag -- makes sense, and the third color, white, is useful in depicting maps showing states that are "undecided" in the polls and in election-night television coverage.

Early on, the most common—though again, not universal—color scheme was to use red for Democrats and blue for Republicans. This was the color scheme employed by NBC—David Brinkley famously referred to the 1984 map showing Reagan's 49-state landslide as a "sea of blue", but this color scheme was also employed by most newsmagazines. CBS during this same period, however, used the opposite scheme—blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. ABC was less consistent than its elder network brothers; in at least two presidential elections during this time before the emergence of cable news outlets, ABC used yellow for one major party and blue for the other. As late as 1996, there was still no universal association of one color with one party.^[1] If anything, the majority of outlets in 1996 were using blue for the GOP and red for the Democrats.^{[citation needed]} David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003) was a popular American television newscaster for two different USA television networks, NBC, and later, ABC. From 1956 through 1970 he co-anchored NBCs top rated nightly news program, The Huntley–Brinkley Report with Chet Huntley. ...

But in 2000, for the first time, all major media outlets used the same colors for each party: Red for Republicans, blue for Democrats. Partly as a result of this first-time universal color-coding, the terms Red States and Blue States entered popular usage in the weeks following the 2000 presidential election. Additionally, the closeness of the disputed election kept the colored maps in the public view for longer than usual, and red and blue thus became fixed in the media and in many people's minds. [2] Journalists began to routinely refer to "blue states" and "red states" even before the 2000 election was settled. After the results were final, journalists stuck with the color scheme, such as The Atlantic's cover story by David Brooks in the December 2001 issue entitled, "One Nation, Slightly Divisible." Thus red and blue became fixed in the media and in many people's minds [3] despite the fact that no "official" color choices had been made by the parties. Presidential electoral votes by state. ... The Atlantic Monthly (also known as The Atlantic) is an American literary/cultural magazine that was founded in November 1857. ... David Brooks, conservative commentator for the New York Times and other publications. ...

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made use of the color scheme when it launched a national "Red to Blue Program" in 2006. [4] Otherwise the color scheme is unofficial and informal, but is widely recognized by media and commentators. Partisan supporters now often use the colors for promotional materials and campaign merchandise.

The choice of colors in this divide is counter-intuitive to many international observers, as throughout the world, red is commonly the designated color for parties representing labor, communist, and/or liberal interests [5] [6], which in the United States would be more closely correlated with the Democratic Party. Similarly, blue is used in these countries to depict conservative parties which in the case of the United States would be a color more suitable for the Republicans. For example, in Canada party colors are deeply ingrained and historic and have been unchanged during the Twentieth Century. The Liberal Party of Canada has long used red and the Conservative Party of Canada has long used blue, and in fact the phrases Liberal red and Tory blue are a part of the national lexicon, as is Red Tory, denoting Conservative members who are social moderates. Similarly, the symbol of Britain's Labour Party is a red rose (and the socialist song 'The Red Flag' is still sung at party conferences), while the British Conservatives are traditionally associated with the color blue. However, in the United States the term "blue collar" is applied to working people and may be associated with organized labor, which is generally supportive of the Democratic Party. This article does not adequately cite its references. ... The Liberal Party of Canada (French: ), colloquially known as the Grits (originally Clear Grits), is a Canadian federal political party. ... The Conservative Party of Canada (French: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a right-leaning conservative political party in Canada, formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 2003. ... The Red Tory Tradition: Ancient Roots-New Routes, by Ron Dart Red Tory is a term given to a political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada. ... A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual or technical labor, such as in a factory or in technical maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ... Working class is a term used both in academic sociology as well as in ordinary conversation. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a group of workers who act collectively to address common issues. ...

In the 1880s, the color scheme was the opposite of the current one. In 1888, a Chicago publisher released a 'Red Hot Democratic' and a 'True Blue Republican' song book in preparation for the upcoming election. (Biggs Argus, 6 September 1888)

Critiques

The paradigm has come under criticism on a number of fronts. Firstly, many argue that the usefulness of assigning partisanship to states is only really useful as it pertains to the Electoral College, a winner-take-all system of elections. Many states contradict their assigned coloration by electing governors or senators from the other party. An electoral college is a set of electors, who are empowered as a deliberative body to elect a candidate to a particular office. ...

Some conservatives have also been wary of using the red state term to describe conservative or Republican-voting electorates, as the term had previously most often been associated with socialist states, like Cuba, China, and East Germany. However, it may by argued that a color scheme associating red with the Democratic Party would have never become widely popularized since Democrats would have been at least as reluctant to associate themselves with a color that has been historically perceived as associated with "un-American" communism. GDR redirects here. ...

See also

• Swing state
• United States presidential election maps
• Purple America
• Jesusland map

A swing state (also, battleground state) in United States presidential politics is a state in which no candidate has overwhelming support, meaning that any of the major candidates have a reasonable chance of winning the states electoral college votes. ... In the United States, the president is elected through the an electoral college system. ... Purple America is a political concept in the USA of the people who want to combine the values of the red, Republican states, with the tastes of the blue, Democratic states. ... The Jesusland map. ...

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Red state-blue state divide

• Maps and cartograms of the 2004 presidential election results, adjusting Red State/ Blue State maps for voting population rather than geographic area alone.
• City Ranks is a Google Maps mashup showing the correlation between population density and the Red State/Blue State phenomenon in an interactive map.
• One Nation, Slightly Divisible - David Brooks (subscription required)
• Washington Post series:
  • For a Conservative, Life is Sweet in Sugar Land, Tex.
  • A Liberal Life in the City by the Bay
• Federal Review Composite Poll - 2004 Electoral College Projection
• Washington Post "Elephants Are Red, Donkeys Are Blue"
• "One Fate, Two Fates, Red States, Blue States"
• CNN "Learn the signs of your political colors" from September 2001
• Election maps from December, 2000
• Choosing colors based on incumbent vs. challenger victory from November, 2004
• BlueStatesRedStates.com A Purple site for Red & Blue times
• The Honky Tonk Gap: Country Music, Red State Identity, and the Election of 2004