# Origin of red and blue states **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2021, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-red-and-blue-states/955119 "2021-11-29T07:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 26
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-red-and-blue-states/955119/26 "2021-11-29T19:57:22Z")
previous thread on this, from way back in 2004: > [@Red/Blue state coloration?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blue-state-coloration/270864/): > > A friend mentioned to me that some radio host (Laura Ingraham, I think) was complaining that “the Democrats stole the color blue for their states”. Which is just silly…but, oddly enough, I recall having seen some explanation (in one of the political threads a couple months ago) as to why the colors red and blue were chosen. Something to do with standard statistical conventions that dealt with how to represent values/numbers in graphical format. The post also mentioned that the red/blue should be… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-red-and-blue-states/955119)._