Red states
The term red states describes those U.S. states that vote for the Republican Party in presidential electionss, the only national elections held in the United States.
The origin of the term is from television newscasts that reveal on presidential election night which candidate has carried which states in the U.S. Electoral College usually through a map of the country with the states predicted to go to one candidate or another lit up in one primary color or another. Traditionally the color used for the Republican Party is red and the Democratic Party blue, and thus the states the Democrats usually win are sometimes referred to as blue states.
The red states tend to fall in The South, parts of the Great Plains and the "Lower Midwest" (the Midwest excluding the Upper Midwest, and rural Western regions of the country, with the Northeast and Pacific Coast being blue states.
Solid red states are Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, which have not voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since 1964. Other strong red states include Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina and Texas, which have not voted Democrat since 1976.
Red states have several demographic differences from blue states, thus the term now has cultural implications as well, implying a conservative region or a more conservative type of American. The most typical is that the majority of red states tend to be more rural with agriculture being one of the most important industries. Red states also tend to be poorer and have fewer college graduates, but send far more members to join the U.S. military. Red states tend to be more actively religious and more overwhelmingly Christian.
The distinction between the two is far from clear cut, however. Minorities in all states tend to vote Democratic. Many states are divided, such as Pennsylvania which is quite conservative in the interior, but liberal around the urban centers of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.