This doesn't contradict your comment, and you might be aware of it already, but red and blue states are to some extent an illusion caused by the voting system:

This doesn't contradict your comment, and you might be aware of it already, but red and blue states are to some extent an illusion caused by the voting system: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2016/ To the extent that they're not an illusion, the red and blue states might be the result of a voting system that inhibits third parties and promotes hyper-partisanship.