In his address before the 2004 Democratic National Convention , Barack Obama spoke on the issue of blue states and red states , saying : " The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states — red states for Republicans , and blue states for Democrats . But I 've got news for them , too . We worship an awesome God in the blue states , and we do n't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states . We coach Little League in the blue states and have gay friends in the red states . … We are one people , all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes , all of us defending the United States of America . " In April 2008 , Republican presidential nominee John McCain predicted that the 2008 presidential election would not follow the red state/blue state pattern , saying , " I 'm not sure that the old red state , blue state scenario that prevailed for the last several elections works . I think most of these states that we have either red or blue are going to be up for grabs . " Arguably , this eventually proved to be somewhat true , but not in McCain 's favor as Obama won three " red " states that had not voted Democratic in many years , namely Virginia , North Carolina , and Indiana along with a part of deep red Nebraska , via the state 's ( much less conservative as a whole ) second congressional district . Obama also came close to winning Missouri , losing it by only a 0.2 % margin . Notably , however , the only deviations from the preexisting red-blue paradigm were all in Obama 's favor . In recent years , Nebraskans voted for Republican candidates
2004 Democratic National Convention
2004 Democratic National Convention
Red states and blue states