# Democrats emphasizing the color red and Republicans emphasizing the color blue **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 12, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335 "2016-10-12T16:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/21 "2016-10-12T20:03:12Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Anny Middon, two or three posters above you explained it already in this thread. Yes, they answered my question while I was in the process of asking it! ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/22 "2016-10-12T20:04:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Also the candidates will try to appear to be “patriotic”, which means that they will try to use the colors of the flag. Sometimes they will use red, sometimes blue, sometimes both, and you will pretty much ignore the white because it won’t really register as a color to you unless you think about it. Hillary wore white for her acceptance speech at the DNC. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/23 "2016-10-12T20:19:59Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > The **random** decision by some journalistic cartographer, I think in 2000, to display Bush-leaning (and then winning) states as red, and Gore-leaning (and then winning) states as blue. This happened to become the template for most US political maps and diagrams since then. (bolding, uh, mine) AHunter3, thanks for the added info – interesting. So, I was wrong about it being random – in fact, there was a precedent for displaying the incumbent as blue, and the challenger as red. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/24 "2016-10-12T21:59:24Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > As has been noted, the parties didn’t decide it. It was decided by the news networks after the 2000 election. Oh, no argument; I meant it when I said I found this interesting. I just poked around with my friend Google and found out that the bright shade of red that Nancy Reagan favored was referred to as Reagan red in her honor, so I think I read something about that at the time and then later, when the Republicans started to be strongly identified with red after the 2000 election, made a connection that turns out not to have been real. Ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/25 "2016-10-13T00:16:40Z")
the networks always kind of varied before 2000, tho in reality, red = R and blue = D was common, contrary to popular myth: 1980: [ABC](https://youtu.be/CrzFftAmq5U?t=1h2m53s) with R=Red, D=Blue 1984: [CBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e4t1qKGFao), and [ABC](https://youtu.be/Hh95GHiYD4o?t=47s) had R=Rep, D=Blue 1988: [CBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uv91cCeuw0) had R = Rep, D = Blue 1992: [ABC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYnHcoKKCU), [CBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTk1uiUwZ8) and [CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PheKHvq0924) had R=Red, D=Blue and as the years went on, holdouts like NBC ultimately got with the program ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/26 "2016-10-13T15:33:41Z")
I remember the 1980 election map being described as “a sea of Reagan red” and I think that’s where the color designation has been ever since. I don’t think this has anything to do with wardrobe selection, some people just look better in some colors than others. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/27 "2016-10-13T16:11:36Z")
There are many books on “color psychology”. Companies have spent a fortune researching which colors are best to place on their product packaging. Bottom line: You can bet your bippy they are wearing those colors for a specific reason! I’ve read a bit on this subject and (in the 1980’s). At that time the books said women are more attracted to the color blue. And men are more attracted to the color red. Also blue is a passive color and red an aggressive color. I don’t know if this is still the case? (Look at the colors used in the tool department of a hardware store and the colors used mostly in women’s departments.) Many times advertisers will make ads which try to gain a larger market share (more sales) from a specific demographic (type of person). And their research would have shown their product sales to that group is lower than with other groups. So they target market… It could be Hillary is trying to appeal more to men. Or look more aggressive/strong? And the opposite for Trump. That would be my guess. Note a lot on this subject is a big corporate secret. So they are not sharing their research. But you can read quite a bit by searching [google.com](http://google.com) for color psychology. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335/28 "2016-10-13T16:17:03Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > It was the established practice of at least some US TV networks to use blue to represent whatever party _currently_ held the White House and red to represent the opposition. Blue = establishment, Red = revolution against it, sort of. Clinton had been President 1992-2000 so blue (establishment) was the Democrats that year. I am guilty of passing along untruths. [Actual colors used](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/04/10/red-vs-blue-a-brief-history-of-how-we-use-political-colors/) [This site/cite](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-were-blue-and-democrats-were-red-104176297/?no-ist) indicates that Kevin Drum of the _Washington Monthly_ popularized the “blue for incumbent party” myth that I repeated above. Sorry folks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-emphasizing-the-color-red-and-republicans-emphasizing-the-color-blue/768335.md?page=1)