Where do the terms “red state” and “blue state” come from?

by Damon Huss

 News anchor Tim Russert (1950–2008) has been credited with coining the familiar terms “red state” and “blue state” describing states that typically vote Republican or Democratic, respectively, in presidential elections. Apparently, in 2000 he used a map on the Today Show to illustrate states that would likely go to George W. Bush and those that would likely go to Al Gore. He used red for Bush’s states and blue for Gore’s. He is also quoted as saying “So how does [Bush] get those remaining 61 electoral red states, if you will?”

 Since then, the terms have been used outside of the electoral context to generally describe more conservative-leaning or liberal-leaning states when it comes to all sorts of social issues or congressional votes. They’re now part of our everyday political lingo. But why red and blue?

 It seems clear that these colors are used probably because they are two of the colors from our flag. Up until Russert’s comment in 2000, news outlets often used blue to designate Republican states and red for Democratic states in elections. So, it seems pretty arbitrary that we’ve attached one color or the other, and some have suggested that the red and blue political maps really make us a “purple nation.”