Politics is basically a game of inches, or at least that’s what it felt like watching the map fill in last November. If you’ve spent any time looking at the final results, you know the big picture: Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’s 226. But the real story of which states are red and blue 2024 isn't just about the winners and losers. It’s about how the ground literally shifted underneath our feet in places we used to think were "safe."
Honestly, the map looks a lot different than it did in 2020.
Back then, the "Blue Wall" in the Midwest seemed to have been rebuilt. Fast forward to today, and that wall didn't just crack—it crumbled. We saw six states flip their colors entirely, all moving from blue to red. If you’re trying to keep track of the scorecard, those states were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The New Red Reality: Where the Map Flipped
When we talk about which states are red and blue 2024, the conversation starts and ends with the "Swing Seven." These were the battlegrounds everyone obsessed over for two years, and in a clean sweep, the GOP took every single one of them.
Pennsylvania was the big one. It has 19 electoral votes, and for the Democrats, it was basically the "must-win" of all must-wins. In the end, it wasn't even as close as the 2020 nail-biter. Trump took the Keystone State by about 2.3 percentage points. It wasn't just rural areas doing the heavy lifting, either; he even made gains in places like Philadelphia, which is usually deep, deep blue.
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Then you've got the Sun Belt. Arizona and Georgia, which Biden narrowly flipped in 2020, went back to red. Nevada was perhaps the most surprising for some, as it hadn't voted for a Republican since George W. Bush in 2004.
The final tally of "Red" states for 2024 includes:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska (statewide and 4 out of 5 votes), Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Wait. 31 states. That’s a massive geographic footprint.
The Blue Strongholds: Still Standing?
On the flip side, the blue map shrank. Harris carried 19 states plus the District of Columbia. If you’re looking for the bluest of the blue, Vermont took the crown with a massive +32 margin for the Democrats. Maryland and Massachusetts weren't far behind.
The 2024 "Blue" states are:
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine (statewide and 3 out of 4 votes), Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
But here’s the thing people get wrong: even the blue states got "redder." Take New York or New Jersey. Harris still won them, but the margins were way tighter than what we saw four years ago. In New York, the Democratic lead dropped significantly, fueled by shifts in New York City and its suburbs. It’s a trend that’s making political consultants on both sides rethink what a "safe" state actually looks like.
Why the Colors Shifted (It’s Kinda Complicated)
You can't just look at which states are red and blue 2024 without asking why. According to data from the Pew Research Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, the demographic shifts were pretty wild.
First, the urban-rural divide got even wider. Rural voters went for Trump by nearly 70%. That’s a huge number. But the real "shock to the system" for the Democrats was the shift among Hispanic and Latino voters. In states like Florida—which is now firmly red and not even considered a swing state anymore—Trump won Miami-Dade County. That used to be a Democratic fortress.
Younger voters also moved. In 2020, Biden won the 18-49 age group by about 17 points. In 2024, that gap closed to just 7 points. When you lose that much ground with the youth, your "blue" states start looking a lot more purple.
Specific Margins: The Deepest Hues
If you want to know which states are the "reddest" and "bluest" based on the actual percentage of victory, here is how the extremes shook out:
The Deep Red:
Wyoming is the undisputed champ here. Trump won it by 46 points. West Virginia (+42) and Idaho (+37) are right there with it. These are states where the Republican platform isn't just popular; it’s the cultural default.
The Deep Blue:
Washington D.C. remains an outlier with an 84-point margin for Harris. Among actual states, Vermont (+32) and Maryland (+29) lead the pack. California, despite all the headlines about people leaving, still stayed blue by 20 points, though that’s actually a smaller margin than they've seen in the past.
The Nebraska and Maine Quirk
Just to make things confusing, we have to talk about the "splitters." Nebraska and Maine don't do winner-take-all.
In Nebraska, Trump won the state overall, but Harris managed to snag one electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District (around Omaha). In Maine, it was the opposite: Harris won the state, but Trump grabbed one vote from the 2nd District. These little pockets of the opposite color are tiny, but in a close election, they are everything. In 2024, they were just interesting footnotes because the overall margin was so wide.
Actionable Takeaways for the Next Cycle
Understanding which states are red and blue 2024 tells us a lot about where the country is headed. If you’re following this for business, marketing, or just to be an informed human, keep these things in mind:
- The "Swing State" list has changed. Florida and Ohio are basically off the table for Democrats now. They are deep red.
- The "Blue Wall" is a myth. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin have voted for the winner in five straight elections. They aren't "loyal" to a party; they are loyal to whoever speaks to their current economic anxiety.
- Watch the margins, not just the wins. When a state like New Jersey gets within single digits, it means the political "center" of the country has shifted.
If you’re looking to dive deeper, you should check out the official certified results from the FEC or the National Archives. They have the granular data that shows exactly how many votes were cast in every single county. The map might look like a simple sea of red and blue, but when you zoom in, it’s a complex, shifting mosaic of people changing their minds in real-time.
For those planning for the 2026 midterms or the next big cycle, the move is to stop looking at states as permanent blocks. The 2024 results proved that with the right message (or the wrong one), almost any state can start to change its color. Keep an eye on the "reddening" suburbs in the Northeast and the "blue" urban centers in the South; that's where the next map will be won or lost.