Why are Some States Called Battleground States?

Battleground states, also known as swing states, are those American states where both the Democratic and Republican parties have similar levels of support among voters, making electoral contests between members of different parties highly competitive. Battleground states are contrasted with so-called “safe states,” whose voters consistently support candidates of a single party.

In presidential elections in most states, the winner of the popular vote is awarded all of the state’s Electoral College votes. In the national presidential election itself, the winner is the candidate with a majority of votes (at least 270) in the Electoral College. Thus, a candidate with a sufficiently large number of safe-state Electoral College votes could win a presidential election by securing even a small popular majority in one or more battleground states.

Given this possibility, presidential candidates usually focus their campaigns on battleground states, where they address issues or concerns that are particularly important to state residents. For example, during the presidential election of 2016, more than 90 percent of the campaign appearances of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were made in just 11 battleground states.