WWTBAM Bored

How did the designation of red and blue states start? I figure it was a TV map, but whose and when?

Here is some history - I remember the Brinkley Swimming Pool comment in 1980

http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ ... edblue.php

It works for me because the usage has a built-in mnemonic:

Re[d] = Re[publican], so the blue must be the remaining possibility, Democratic.

This is similar to remembering that "port" is left, because both words have four letters, so the contrasting word, "starboard" is right.

I'm sure it started in 1976, and I'm pretty sure that the network was CBS.

I read an article in which a reporter described watching the returns with the Gerald Ford camp. As the evening wore on, President Ford grew more and more disheartened as the map turned to blue in key states, indicating that President Carter would win. Most of the out-west states were going solidly for President Ford, so those states were turning red.

President Ford still managed to joke about it, and at one point laughingly said something like, Well, we can work this out. I'll be the President of the United Red States of America, and Jimmy Carter can be the President of the United Blue States of America.

SportsFan68 wrote:I'm sure it started in 1976, and I'm pretty sure that the network was CBS.

I read an article in which a reporter described watching the returns with the Gerald Ford camp. As the evening wore on, President Ford grew more and more disheartened as the map turned to blue in key states, indicating that President Carter would win. Most of the out-west states were going solidly for President Ford, so those states were turning red.

President Ford still managed to joke about it, and at one point laughingly said something like, Well, we can work this out. I'll be the President of the United Red States of America, and Jimmy Carter can be the President of the United Blue States of America.

You may be partially remembering. I remember when Blue = Republican. Then I guess the media realized the association Red = Communisim so they swapped their party with the Republicans and made Red = Republican.

BackInTex wrote:

SportsFan68 wrote:I'm sure it started in 1976, and I'm pretty sure that the network was CBS.

I read an article in which a reporter described watching the returns with the Gerald Ford camp. As the evening wore on, President Ford grew more and more disheartened as the map turned to blue in key states, indicating that President Carter would win. Most of the out-west states were going solidly for President Ford, so those states were turning red.

President Ford still managed to joke about it, and at one point laughingly said something like, Well, we can work this out. I'll be the President of the United Red States of America, and Jimmy Carter can be the President of the United Blue States of America.

You may be partially remembering. I remember when Blue = Republican. Then I guess the media realized the association Red = Communisim so they swapped their party with the Republicans and made Red = Republican.

I think BiT's right except about the Communism; I am only partially remembering. It wasn't standard until 2000, and it appears that the standarization was a result of a mnemonic as SC says. REd = REpublican.