Editing Swing vote (section)

== Impact on campaigning ==
Swing Vote can have a very broad meaning and has been used in many different contexts by different media and news outlets. One definition is someone who has not yet made up their mind on how they will be voting. These voters can be easily persuaded and are cross pressured. If some voters are firm, clear, dependable supporters of one candidate or the other, swing voters are the opposite: those whose final allegiance is in some doubt all the way up until election day.<ref name="Mayer 358–388">{{Cite journal |last=Mayer |first=William G. |date=2007-05-01 |title=The Swing Voter in American Presidential Elections |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532673X06297000?journalCode=aprb |journal=American Politics Research |language=en |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=358–388 |doi=10.1177/1532673X06297000 |issn=1532-673X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This is particularly significant when considering where political parties choose to focus their campaigning efforts. The voters who can be convinced are the voters that receive the most attention because campaigns will not bother to engage the voters they know will show up to the polls and support them. In the state of New York, voters almost always vote Democrat so the Democratic and Republican candidates do not spend much campaign time there as there is little chance the outcome will change.

Whether swing voters actually exist is a point of contention. Prior to an election, some voters may claim to be "swing voters", open to the idea of changing their vote. But in reality, they are not as "undecided" as they may claim. They have pre-existing biases and history that almost always draws them to one political side or the other.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rothschild |first=David M |title=Mythical Swing Voter |url=https://researchdmr.com/MythicalSwingVoterFinal.pdf)}}</ref>

Focusing only on the undecided voters instead of all voters at large is a core part of almost all political campaigns. With this framework in mind, the idea of a swing vote can closely tie with the concept of [[swing state]]s. Swing/Battleground states are states that neither party can guarantee will go in their favour. These are the states that politicians will most likely focus their time to maximize their reach, in the same way that there is a focus on swing voters. Identifying battleground states is much easier than identifying individual swing votes.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

To some extent, it is unclear if a state truly is a "swing state."  For decades Missouri was the ultimate "swing" state until 2004 when it "swung" from Democrat to Republican. Since then it has been reliably Republican in presidential elections. The same can be said for the state of Florida which was famously the deciding state in the 2000 presidential election, but in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections has become reliably Republican. Colorado and Virginia also went from "swing states" to reliably Democrat in recent presidential elections as well.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Zachary B. |date=2024-10-29 |title=Analysis: Today's swing states are tomorrow's safe states {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/29/politics/swing-states-election-what-matters/index.html |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref>

With battleground states being essential in a potential close call in a future election, campaigns must balance their efforts, targeting persuadable voters while energizing their base to ensure high turnout. The 1960 election, where swing voters tipped the scales for Kennedy, demonstrates the importance of strategic resource allocation, prioritizing battleground areas where both groups can be influenced. However, swing voters often reinforce existing trends rather than decisively shifting outcomes, showing the need for campaigns to focus on broad appeal through national messaging and policies that resonate across demographics.