IN05 - Hale (D) Internal: Biden+10

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

For decades TV networks alternated the color of the incumbent party. After 2000, the Bush/Gore map persisted for months in the national spotlight, and that color scheme got "locked in." That's when "red state," "blue state" entered common parlance.

I prefer this site's scheme, because traditionally red is the color of the left-wing party (like Labour in the UK) and blue is the color of the right-wing party (like the Conservatives in the UK).

[Alben Barkley]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Until 2000, the blue=Democrat and red=Republican color scheme was not universal by any means. Different networks would use different colors in different years, often flipping which color was which party each election.

But in 2000, the "blue states" and "red states" thing became solidified as the map everyone was poring over for weeks on end due to the unsettled election happened to have Gore as blue and Bush as red.

The creator of this site, however, associated red more with Democrats and blue more with Republicans due to memories of earlier elections. In addition, in most of the world left-leaning parties are red and right-leaning parties are blue. UK Labour vs. Conservative for instance.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Red for Republican and blue for Democrats is a pretty new arrangement (as in within the last twenty years).

Before then, there was no standard agreement.  Different networks had different rules.  Some networks assigned blue to the incumbent party and red to the challenging party.  It wasn't until the 2000 election that the colors became party exclusive.  

My understanding is that the color scheme goes along with what most of the world uses: red for Labour lefty parties and blue for conservative parties.  It just keeps things consistent.  

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Red for Republican and blue for Democrats is a pretty new arrangement (as in within the last twenty years).

Before then, there was no standard agreement.  Different networks had different rules.  Some networks assigned blue to the incumbent party and red to the challenging party.  It wasn't until the 2000 election that the colors became party exclusive.  

My understanding is that the color scheme goes along with what most of the world uses: red for Labour lefty parties and blue for conservative parties.  It just keeps things consistent.  

It was pretty arbitrary. I remember in the 1992 election, different networks had different schemes. Looks like NBC used this site's scheme a lot:

1980
https://youtu.be/PsDe-8cOSYY

1984:
https://youtu.be/PwiKrs12aBY

1988:
https://youtu.be/5sLvZyqNP2U

1992:
https://youtu.be/WcJ8iWnZZg8

I love at the beginning of that last video, the outgoing GOP Senator from New Hampshire conceded that the Democrats might have total control of Washington, and how he hoped that they do what's best for the country, but obviously it wasn't what he would prefer. He didn't shout and spit and carry on about the wave of socialism that was about to destroy the country.

Better times.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I refuse to accept that Indiana will pleasantly surprise us ever again. 2008 and 2012 were enough.

[redjohn]

This is an internal, but it just confirms the general trends we're seeing: Biden doing well in suburbs, Biden leading Trump nationwide by a decent margin. Hopefully this holds up come election day.

[pbrower2a]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Until the 1980's the norm for colors of the states in electoral maps was red for Democrats and blue for Republicans. In a two-party system for political analysis Red was the color more often used by the party closer to being socialist and Blue was for the Party least socialist. So it was with Labour (Red) and Conservative (Blue) in the  UK.  In 1980, Republicans co-opted red, and Democrats got stuck with blue.

Red for Democrats and Blue for Republicans was the norm from 1856 (when the Republican Party came into existence) and Red was for Democrats were. Another possibility was that Blue was more closely tied to loyalty, and... most of the Confederates were former Democrats in America.

I often use maps that I have constructed with this site's program, and warn people of what I am doing. Note well that many States tend to be very different in their usual vote for President from what they were earlier. As an example, Obama won no state in 2012 except Hawaii (which was not voting in the 1950's) that Ike did not win twice. (That is my favorite construction, by the way, and I frequently use it to make points in political debates. Political cultures are generally far more stable in states than is the orientation of political parties which may have changing compositions as their statewide coalition with, as a consequence, changing levels of strength within states. This is more frequent than demographic change to the gain or detriment of the Parties, although that happens.

Reliance upon old color patterns allows one to compare and contrast elections even across decades. For example, did you know that Barack Obama won every state that Abraham Lincoln won in 1860? No, nobody says that Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln or something to that effect.         

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Red for Republican and blue for Democrats is a pretty new arrangement (as in within the last twenty years).

Before then, there was no standard agreement.  Different networks had different rules.  Some networks assigned blue to the incumbent party and red to the challenging party.  It wasn't until the 2000 election that the colors became party exclusive.  

My understanding is that the color scheme goes along with what most of the world uses: red for Labour lefty parties and blue for conservative parties.  It just keeps things consistent.  

It was pretty arbitrary. I remember in the 1992 election, different networks had different schemes. Looks like NBC used this site's scheme a lot:

1980
https://youtu.be/PsDe-8cOSYY

1984:
https://youtu.be/PwiKrs12aBY

1988:
https://youtu.be/5sLvZyqNP2U

1992:
https://youtu.be/WcJ8iWnZZg8

I love at the beginning of that last video, the outgoing GOP Senator from New Hampshire conceded that the Democrats might have total control of Washington, and how he hoped that they do what's best for the country, but obviously it wasn't what he would prefer. He didn't shout and spit and carry on about the wave of socialism that was about to destroy the country.

Better times.

Just randomly put on coverage of the 1996 election. 

"And now West Virginia, solid Democratic state and one that pundits overwhelmingly predicted to be in Clinton's favor -- looks like we can officially award the state's four electoral votes to him."

[Pollster]

Haven't seen it posted yet, but here is the poll. From GBAO, one of the best Dem firms.

[WD]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm new to the site - Why does this site use blue for Republicans and red for Democrats?

Welcome to the fourm!
As said earlier the colors are reversed from the old days when Blue was for conservatives and red for liberals.

[Pericles]

A worry for Hale is her margin is 4 points lower than Biden's. So Biden could receive a big swing, maybe not quite as crazy as the one in this poll, and win this district narrowly, but Hale runs behind enough to narrowly lose.