Why is red the color of republicans and blue the color of democrats?

Factual Questions
61

Cyraknow writes:

> The actual question seems well answered, but I would just like to add a
> confirmation that the standard elsewhere truly is the inverse of the current
> american practice. In Canada, our Liberal Party (but not the more “liberal” New
> Democrats) have always been red while the Tories/Conservatives (truly
> conservative) have in all their incarnations been blue.

Well, not exactly the inverse. As has been said several times, red is not the color of the Republican party and blue is not the color of the Democratic party. They are the color of Republican-leaning states and Democratic-leaning states, respectively. One never speaks of red and blue as being the color of the parties themselves nor of someone in the parties. The parties don’t have colors in the U.S.

62

I understand that the colors were largely arbitrary and unsynchronized until the 2000 election debacle froze them into their current standard. But, is it true that every major network used the same color scheme in 2000 (i.e., red for Republican states, blue for Democratic ones)? And, if so, why did they all sync up?