As Democrats and Republicans try to attract voters ahead of the November presidential election, both party’s nominees are focusing on campaigning in a handful of states, known as swing states.
A swing state is one where both parties have similar levels of support and could play a key role in the outcome of a presidential election, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Swing states, also called battleground states, are divided politically and often the sites of frequent campaign rallies and targets of advertisements.
“In most states, the outcome in a two-person contest is going to be clear, and the campaign will take it for granted,” Alex Keyssar, a history professor at Harvard University, told share.america.gov, the U.S. Department of State website.
In “the swing states, that’s not true,” he said.
Following the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where a large focus was on campaigning strategies in swing states, a number of people have searched online to figure out if Illinois is a swing state.
While the swing states do change over time, Illinois hasn’t been one in recent decades.
When it comes to presidential elections, Illinois has voted Democratic in the eight elections since 1988. However, in 1988 and the five presidential elections prior, Illinois voted Republican.
This time around, the candidates are focused on seven swing states, including two in the Midwest – Michigan and Wisconsin, according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia’s, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan newsletter. The other states are Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona.
Each of these seven states were decided by 3 points or less in the 2020 presidential election, and six of them – except North Carolina – were won by President Biden. The results were much different in 2016, however.
Six of the aforementioned states – excluding Nevada – were won by Trump, helping him clinch the presidency.