What are the swing states in the US and what do they mean?
SWING states in the US are known as “purple states” because there is no majority party that represents them and they can be won by either a Democrat or a Republican candidate.
The swing states are usually created by population changes, ideological polarization, and a chunk of moderate voters whose unpredictable vote could sway either way.
What does a swing state mean?
The term “swing state” refers to the unpredictability of voter parties in a certain state during an election.
Thirty-eight out of the 50 states have voted for the same party since the 2000 presidential election, which has made it relatively easy to predict which states will vote for a Democratic candidate and which will vote for a Republican.
However, with swing states there is no consistent favorable party and any candidate of the party they represent can take all the electoral votes and win the state.
What are the swing states in the US?
The swing states in the US vary and not necessarily by region.
Potential swing states are: Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
It has been noted that urban areas tend to vote Democratic and rural areas tend to lean Republican.
When liberal-leaning voters move to other coasts, major cities, settle in smaller or more rural areas, they can alter the balance between parties.
“Before the 1990s, there was a good number of liberal Republicans in the North and conservative Democrats in the South,” said Brooklings Institution’s senior fellow John Hudak to the History channel.
“As parties divide, they can change whether a state is a swing state or not.”
Did Donald Trump win the swing states in the 2016 election?
President Trump took six out of 10 swing states in the 2016 and won the Electoral College vote because of that.
He won Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Why do candidates say ‘every vote counts?’
Candidates running for election always reiterate the ideology that “every vote counts” because of swing states.
During the 1960 presidential election between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy, 10 states were won by less than two percent of the vote.
Similarly, in 2000, the results of the election came down to who won Florida, which George W. Bush won by a margin of just 537 votes.
When is the election?
This year marks America’s 59th presidential election and it is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden officially won the race to be the Democratic candidate on June 5, after storming to a number of influential victories in key states on Super Tuesday on March 3.
He will run against incumbent Donald Trump in a hotly contested election which has seen the polls slide in Biden’s favor.
The winner of the 2020 election will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021.