When was the last time Illinois voted red in a presidential election?

ILLINOIS - We're just days away from the November 5, 2024 general election. Voters will soon decide whether Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat), former President Donald Trump (Republican) or third-party candidates to determine the 47th president in United States history.

The latest comprehensive election models from The Hill project that Harris has a 98% chance of winning Illinois. If this scenario becomes a reality, it would extend Illinois' long-standing pattern of voting blue in presidential elections.

But just how lengthy is that long-standing pattern? According to state election results, the last time Illinois did not vote blue in a presidential candidate, otherwise voting majority red, was 1988.

That year, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush defeated Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis to become the 42nd U.S. President, following an eight-year term from Republican incumbent Ronald Reagan. Illinois voted in favor of Bush, 51.8% to 47.8%, over Dukakis.

Before the turn to the 21st century, Illinois held a strong reputation as a bellwether state. Illinois voters sided with eventual winners in 21 of 25 U.S. presidential elections from 1900 to 1996.

This century, the closest Illinois has ever come to voting red in a presidential election was in 2004 when state voters sided with Democratic challenger John Kerry, 54.8% to 44.5%, over Republican incumbent and 43rd U.S. president George W. Bush. Bush won a second presidential term that year.

No other red candidates have finished within a 10% gap of a blue majority for Illinois in a presidential election in the 2000s.

Origins of red and blue states

NOTE: This information is based on a similar recent report from Nexstar affiliate KTLA.

While it seems like a name that has been around forever, the terms "red" and "blue" states have actually not been around for as long as you may think.

To find the origins of these names, you’d have to go back to the year 1976, according to NPR. During the election that year, NBC, the first all-color network, unveiled an illuminated colored map. If a state voted for Gerald Ford (Republican), the state would turn the color blue and if they voted for Jimmy Carter (Democrat) it would turn red – the opposite colors of what the parties are associated with today.

The original choice of blue for Republicans was due to blue being the color of the Union during the Civil War.

As more networks began switching to color, they too began using colored maps for the election, but they did not agree on what color each party should be. This caused viewers who would switch channels plenty of confusion as what was blue for Republicans on NBC was red on a different network.

This confusion continued until 2000 when people began casually referring to states that voted for George W. Bush (Republican) as red states and states that voted for Al Gore (Democrat) as blue states.

The terms then became commonplace in the political world, pop culture, and throughout the country, with everyone agreeing that Democrats were blue and Republicans were red.