Purple state
Purple state is a term which refers to "battleground" or "swing" states in United States Presidential elections.
As many states are dominated by one party or the other (examples are California and New York for the Democrats and Texas for the Republicans), purple states are the ones in which candidates expend disproportionate resources as they are the only ones where a party is not guaranteed virtual success.
Examples of "purple" states include: Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.[1] Florida is usually the most watched due to the 2000 Presidential Election (where a mere 537 votes made all the difference in electing George W. Bush), and due to Presidential candidates being able to campaign in mild weather during the otherwise frigid fall season.
"Purple" refers to the tradition of classifying states as "Red" or "Blue", responding to an Electoral College vote of Republican and Democratic presidential candidate, respectively.[2] In this scheme, very close states are colored purple until the final vote tally is finished. In reality, most states are "purple" if viewed on a per-county basis.[3]
Composition
Blue in local elections, Red in presidential elections:
Red in local elections, blue in presidential elections:
Others:
See also
- Blue Dog Democrat
- Gun control of the Purple States
- Blue states or Unfree states of Big Government-Welfare state-Nanny state-Statist-Police state
- Purple states - swing states that can vote either Republican or Democrat
- Free States Movement
- Strategic relocation: Vote with your feet
- American Redoubt - Free State Wyoming - Free State Project
References
- ↑ http://www.wordspy.com/words/purplestate.asp
- ↑ It should be noted that the use of "red" to denote a relatively conservative party, and blue a relatively liberal one, is the exact opposite of the color scheme used in European countries, where red denotes a left-leaning party and blue a right-leaning one.
- ↑ Purple states of America - a county by county breakdown of presidential elections since 1960.