Red state
The term red states describes those U.S. states having residents who predominantly tend to vote for the Republican Party in presidential elections, the only national elections held in the United States.
The origin of the term is from television newscasts which reveal, or project, on presidential election night which party's candidate has carried which states in the U.S. Electoral College, usually through a map of the country with the states projected to go to one party or another (Republican or Democratic) lit up in one primary color or another - specifically red or blue. Originally, the color assignments alternated every four years. In the hotly-contested election of 2000, it was the Republicans' turn for red and the Democrats' turn for blue; and because the resulting map for that year (shown at right) revealed that support for each party followed a sharply defined geographical pattern, it has since become customary to refer to the Republican-leaning states as red states and the Democratic strongholds as blue states.
The red states tend to fall in The South, parts of the Great Plains and the "Lower Midwest" (the Midwest excluding the Upper Midwest, and rural Western regions of the country, with the Northeast and Pacific Coast featuring the largest metropolitan areas being blue states.
Solid red states are Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, which have not voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since 1964. Other strong red states include Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina and Texas, which have not voted Democrat since 1976.
Red states have several demographic differences from blue states; thus the term now has cultural implications as well, implying a conservative region or a more conservative type of American. This view of an "America somewhat divided" into two cultural zones has been most prominently advanced by conservative writer David Brooks. The most typical is that the majority of red states tend to feature more rural area, with agriculture being one of the most important industries. Red states also tend to be poorer and have fewer college graduates, but send far more members to join the U.S. military. Red states tend to be more actively religious and more overwhelmingly Christian. Recently others have challenged Brooks' views, charging that they are exaggerated.
The distinction between the two groups of states is far from clear cut, however. Members of minority racial groups in all states tend to vote Democratic. Many states are divided, such as Pennsylvania which is quite conservative in the interior, but liberal around the urban centers of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
It should be noted that not all media outlets follow this standard. According to Federal Review's web site, the trend has been towards the use of blue for the incumbent and red for the challenger.
See also
