In most parts of the world, red is the colour of revolution — socialism, labour movements, and left-wing politics. From the Bolshevik flag to Britain’s Labour rose, red has long been the hue of the Left. Yet in the United States, it’s the conservative Republican Party that’s bathed in crimson. How did that happen?
The Big Picture
The Republican Party’s red branding has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with television graphics. The colour-coding of U.S. politics — red for Republicans, blue for Democrats — is a media invention that only became standard after the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.Before that, different networks used different colours: NBC might show Republicans in blue, while CBS showed them in red. There was no fixed rule.
Driving the History
In early election broadcasts (1950s–1990s), American TV networks used contrasting colours to make electoral maps easy to read, but the assignments varied from year to year.The 1976 and 1980 elections, for example, saw blue Republicans and red Democrats on some channels.The convention flipped permanently in 2000, when 24-hour coverage of the Bush-Gore contest forced networks to pick a single scheme and stick with it.CNN, NBC, and others settled on red for Republicans and blue for Democrats — partly because red begins with “R” and blue felt cooler and calmer, fitting the Democratic image.The dramatic Florida recount and prolonged media coverage cemented the colour identities in public consciousness. “Red states” and “blue states” entered the American lexicon almost overnight.
Why It Matters
The colour divide has since become a cultural shorthand for America’s deep political polarisation. “Red America” now evokes conservative, rural, or evangelical regions, while “Blue America” signifies liberal, urban, coastal enclaves. Yet the irony remains: in most of the world, red still means the Left.
The Takeaway
The Republican Party didn’t choose red — television did. What began as a convenient graphic design choice in a contentious election year ended up rewriting America’s political colour code.In short: red turned right — by accident, not by ideology.
