- Joined
- Mar 13, 2022
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- Political Leaning
- Conservative
You see the terms used all the time--Red States / Blue States. But they aren't exactly defined very well, leading to questions of just who belongs in which category. Does a state that has been consistently voting for Democratic candidates for president become a red state if they vote for a Republican once, then flip back to Blue when they resume their usual pattern? So I came up with my own way of measuring, giving equal weight for votes for each of four categories--president, senators, House representatives, and governors--over sixteen years. This is what I came up with (the higher the percentage, the more support for Republicans):
I figure, any state up to 33.3% is Blue, any state up to 67.7% is Purple, and any state that is above that is Red. You can get surprises with this. Montana, for instance, is normally considered a Red state, and with good reason--all eight of its House and President votes over the past 16 years have been Republican. But 4 out of six votes for Senator and three out of four votes for Governor have gone to Democrats, so a final score of 64.6% ... barely into Purple territory.
I figure, any state up to 33.3% is Blue, any state up to 67.7% is Purple, and any state that is above that is Red. You can get surprises with this. Montana, for instance, is normally considered a Red state, and with good reason--all eight of its House and President votes over the past 16 years have been Republican. But 4 out of six votes for Senator and three out of four votes for Governor have gone to Democrats, so a final score of 64.6% ... barely into Purple territory.