A swing state is a US state where both presidential candidates have a chance of winning due to divided support. Swing states receive a lot of attention during elections, and are identified early on. They are often evenly divided due to regional or demographic factors, and are also known as purple or battlefield states. Candidates focus their campaigns on swing states, mobilizing volunteers and staff to win the vote. Opinion polls and primaries in swing states are closely followed, and people travel from across the country to support their candidates.
A swing state is a US state in which both presidential candidates have a reasonable chance of winning, because support is almost equally divided. The opposite of a swing state is a “safe state,” where a candidate has a patently clear majority, ensuring that the state will go to him or her. As you might imagine, swing states tend to get a lot of attention during election years, because they can make or break the outcome of an election.
There are a number of reasons why citizens of a swing state have such divided loyalties. Often a candidate has a stronghold in a particular region of the state; classically, a Democratic candidate is supported by urban residents, while a Republican candidate can win a large segment of the rural vote. Since these populations are often approximately equal, the state ends up being divided. In other cases, the distribution may be much more even, with most counties split roughly down the middle in terms of who they support.
You may also hear a swing state called the purple state, referring to the red and blue colors used on maps to identify election results; the implication is that the swing state is so perfectly divided that the colors blend to turn the state purple, instead of solidly red or blue. Swing states are also known as battlefield states, in reference to the immense amount of money, time, and resources lavished into such states in hopes of winning the vote; the margin in a battle state can sometimes be very small, so it’s a case where every vote counts.
As a general rule, swing states are identified very early in the election cycle, allowing candidates to focus specifically on them, often largely ignoring safe states. Politicians might pay a token visit to states that support them early in the election cycle, but they spend most of their campaign time in swing states, mobilizing volunteers and staff to win the vote for them as they hold rallies, attend at events, and generally putting himself in the public eye.
Because swing states are so important, they are often a topic of interest in the wider community as well. The results of opinion polls and primaries in these states are being followed closely in the news, in hopes of gleaning insights into how these states might fare in a general election. People also travel from across the country to work in swing states in the months and weeks leading up to elections, supporting their candidates with phone calls, door-to-door and other techniques.
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