Why are Republicans red and Democrats blue? This is why and television’s role in the coding

We all know that two animals are associated with the leading US political parties with the Democrats being the ‘donkeys’ and Republicans being the elephants. This associations go back apparently to an Illinois newspaper back in the 1860 presidential election campaign during the the time of Abraham Lincoln. By the end of the 19th century both the Republican elephant and the Democrat donkey were firmly associated with the parties thanks to their use in cartoons in large circulation newspapers.

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The color coding for each party is a newer phenomenon however.

Republican-red, Democrat-blue

During the coverage of the 1976 US presidential election and with the large proliferation of color television, NBC News used coloured bulbs on their election map to indicate which states went for Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Matching the political code used in the United Kingdom, Republican Ford was blue like the UK Conservative Party while Carter’s Democrats were given the red colour (tying in with the UK Labour Party).

Colouring schemes though varied from station to station and in the various newspapers and magazines according to the Smithsonian Magazine.

However, the epic election of 2000 cemented the color association as we know it today. A mere two days after voters had cast their ballots both the New York Times and USA Today published their first colour-coded election maps, breaking them down by counties. Both publications used red to indicate areas that George W Bush had won and blue for places that went for Al Gore.

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The logic used to link red for Republicans was simply because “red begins with r, Republican begins with r,” said the senior graphics editor Archie Tse, “it was a more natural association with blue becoming the Democrat color.”