ABSTRACT
In political discussions, Americans have become accustomed to speaking of “red states” and “blue states,” that is, states that dependably vote Republican or Democrat, respectively. As can be seen in Figure 12.1, red or Republican states tend to be located in the South and Great Plains, while blue or Democrat states tend to be situated in the Northeast and the West. These differences have been very consistent over time (although decades ago the party associations were flipped, with Republicans being the liberal Northern party and Democrats the conservative Southern party) and are so strong that, in most elections, it can be assumed with great confidence that California will go Democrat and Texas will go Republican. As presidential election watchers know, the outcome usually depends on a few “swing states” where the result is not a foregone conclusion. Interestingly, when the election returns are examined at a more local level, it is clear that there are many red counties in blue states and many blue counties in red states. For example, while coastal (and more urban) California is solidly blue, inland (and more rural) California is largely red; likewise, New York City is blue but much of upstate New York is red, and most of Texas is red although southern Texas is blue. While most of the surface area of the country is colored red, the most populous regions (again, the cities) are strongly blue. A clear example is Illinois: most of the state is red, but Chicago’s overwhelming blue population handed the state to the Democrats.
