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How red went from the color of revolution to the color of Republicans in US politics
A contested Florida recount made the color scheme familiar, and journalists later turned it into shorthand for political geography and identity.
- The red-blue convention defining American politics solidified during the 2000 presidential election, as networks used the same graphic nightly during the five-week Florida recount.
- Before 2000, political maps lacked standardized colors. In 1976, NBC colored Gerald Ford's states blue and Jimmy Carter's states red; four years later, Ronald Reagan's landslide victory painted the map blue.
- The 2000 election remained unresolved for five weeks as Florida's votes were contested repeatedly. By the time the Supreme Court certified Republican George Bush the winner by 537 votes, the red-blue scheme had become permanent.
- Journalists quickly began describing "two Americas: red and blue" as the convention evolved beyond maps. By the 2004 campaign, NBC's Tim Russert was often credited with popularizing "red states," though the exact origin remains disputed.
- Princeton's Robert Vanderbei created a "Purple America" map after 2000 to reflect vote splits by county, though the binary shorthand persists and often magnifies regional political differences rather than revealing actual variety.
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How red went from the color of revolution to the color of Republicans in US politics
Dividing voters into red and blue states fails to capture the reality of politics in America. mphillips007/Getty Images Plus“Better dead than red.” Cold War conservatives used to say that, and they meant it: Better to suffer nuclear annihilation, they believed, than endure a “red” victory. And by “red” they meant anyone on the left of the political spectrum – from the Soviet communists to their “fellow travelers” in the U.S. It’s strange, then, …
·Boston, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources36
Leaning Left4Leaning Right7Center22Last UpdatedBias Distribution67% Center
Bias Distribution
- 67% of the sources are Center
67% Center
12%
C 67%
R 21%
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