Sometimes it feels like being from a semi-rural area and a purple state is equivalent to being from the moon. The majority of American Brandeis students come from blue states, with the top five states students come from being Massachusetts, New York, California, New Jersey and Connecticut. To assist those who think the phrase “socially liberal and fiscally conservative” is only a joke or don’t understand how you can have an uncle who owns 20+ guns and voted for Kamala Harris, let me introduce you to the purple states.
A purple state, or swing state, is a state that could reasonably go to either the Republican or Democratic candidate in the presidential election. The list of purple states shifts over time, but the current roster consists of Arizona (my home state), Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These states represent the more politically diverse, and occasionally politically divided, parts of America. Often the narrative around the red/blue, Republican/Democrat split is one of intensely divided people with exceptionally distinct beliefs. The truth of swing states is a lot more complex than that.
The purpleness of the states extends into their residents. While every area has its MAGA Republicans and Tankies, the majority of people I have met in the purple area of Arizona I reside in have had complex, often contradictory, politics. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Arizona politicians attempted to reinstate a near-complete abortion ban which had been lurking in the state constitution. In response to this possibility, the citizens of the state gathered over 800,000 signatures to add a vote for the addition of abortion rights in the constitution to the 2024 ballot. In the end, 60% of voters marked yes on their ballots, despite the state going to Donald Trump in the presidential election. Obviously, this isn’t a problem of red areas and blue areas happening to get placed within the same borders.
The cultural differences between red and blue states are rarely disputed, yet the culture of swing states is rarely spoken about, potentially because it is a far more complex set of circumstances that lead to the culture of each state. The lack of focus on the cultures of these areas is surprising, however, due to the importance these areas serve politically. Swing states decide elections in America. Trump won every single purple state in the last election because he figured how to appeal to the tendencies of the residents.
The average resident of a purple state will be liberal on their face, supporting abortion, hating ICE and having middling opinions of gay people. At the same time, they are often anti-immigration, transphobic and “fiscally conservative.” These are the exact kind of people who feel they don’t have a party which represents their interests. When Democrats refuse to lower themselves from their coastal elite image to speak to Average Joe living in a rural-suburb, they give up the swing states. This is not a call for more centrist policies, but a call for speaking to people where they are at. Democrats need to be loud about what the voters support and need rhetoric that can move them on the things they disagree on. Donald Trump proved this could be done.
With an intense alternative media campaign, Trump managed to speak to the average purple voter whose only other news source is the local news. Figures like Joe Rogan played on fears of immigration and the more traditional gendered expectations still prevalent in these areas. When there is a potential shift to a more left leaning state culture, as there is in every swing state, Democrats need to capitalize on it. Democrats have failed to create messaging which will get politically disengaged voters, who don’t see themselves represented, energized.
In the long term, swing states don’t remain that way for very long. These are moments that need to be seized if Democrats ever want a chance of beating the Republican party. If they don’t, Republicans will and a purple state will be made red.
