Editing Red (section)

===United States===
[[File:Red states and blue states of the US based on data from the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.svg|thumb|A map of the U.S. showing the [[blue states]], which voted for the Democratic candidate in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections, and the [[red states]], which voted for the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]]]

In the United States, political commentators often refer to the "red states", which voted for Republican candidates in the last four presidential elections, and "blue states", which voted for Democrats. This convention is relatively recent: before the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 presidential election]], media outlets assigned red and blue to both parties, sometimes alternating the allocation for each election. Fixed usage was established during the 39-day recount following the 2000 election, when the media began to discuss the contest in terms of [[Red states and blue states|"red states" versus "blue states"]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17079-2004Nov1.html|title=Elephants Are Red, Donkeys Are Blue|last=Farhi|first=Paul|date=Nov 2, 2004|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=Apr 19, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819102044/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17079-2004Nov1.html|archive-date=August 19, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> States which voted for different parties in two of the last four presidential elections are called "Swing States", and are usually colored purple, a mix of red and blue.<ref>{{Cite web|title=What Are Swing States and How Did They Become a Key Factor in US Elections?|url=https://www.history.com/news/swing-states-presidential-elections|access-date=October 24, 2020|website=HISTORY|date=7 October 2020|archive-date=26 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126085129/https://www.history.com/news/swing-states-presidential-elections|url-status=live}}</ref>