What states mostly votes republican and what states mostly votes democrat.
Executive summary
A clear pattern exists: a core of states reliably delivers large margins for Republican presidential candidates while a different set of states and the District of Columbia consistently return large margins for Democrats; a smaller group of swing or battleground states flips between the parties and decides many elections [1] [2] [3]. Historical streaks and measures such as the Cook Partisan Voting Index and recent presidential margins show which states “mostly” vote Republican or Democratic, though definitions (long-term streaks, most recent elections, or voter registration) change the exact lists [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. Solid Republican states: rural heartlands and the mountain West
Multiple data sources identify Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, North Dakota and West Virginia among the most reliably Republican states, with Wyoming frequently topping Republican-least-Democratic lists and posting some of the widest recent margins (Wyoming R+25 in CPVI; Wyoming and Oklahoma named consistent Republican supporters) [6] [1] [2]. Statista and USAFacts note long Republican streaks in many Plains and Mountain states and list the largest 2024 Republican margins in Wyoming (+46), West Virginia (+42), Idaho (+37), North Dakota (+36) and Oklahoma (+34) — illustrating both historical and very recent strength [8] [2].
2. Solid Democratic states: coastal and urban strongholds plus the District of Columbia
A different cluster — including California, New York, Massachusetts, and other coastal and heavily urbanized states — reliably votes Democratic in presidential contests and has strong Democratic voter registration or Cook PVI scores [5] [7]. The District of Columbia is the most consistently Democratic jurisdiction, having voted Democratic in every presidential election since it gained electors in 1964 [8]. World Economic Forum and WorldPopulationReview highlight long-standing Democratic strongholds such as Hawaii and Minnesota among others [1] [5].
3. The swing states that actually decide outcomes
A small number of states flip between parties and thus receive outsized attention: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada have been decisive battlegrounds in recent cycles, with narrow margins and flips in 2016 and 2020 noted across multiple trackers [3] [9] [2]. VisualCapitalist and 270toWin document how wins in those states helped determine the 2020 result, and USAFacts highlights six states that switched between 2016–2020 cycles, underlining their volatile status [3] [9] [2].
4. How experts define “mostly” — streaks, margins, registration and PVI
“Mostly” can mean voting for the same party across many elections (voting streaks tracked back to 1900), having large margins in the most recent election, a partisan voter-registration plurality, or a strong Cook Partisan Voting Index; different measures give overlapping but not identical lists [10] [7] [5]. Ballotpedia and Statista catalog historical streaks and electoral histories, while WorldPopulationReview and CPVI rankings provide contemporary partisan lean measures — each method highlights the same broad blocs but names vary with the metric used [10] [11] [5].
5. Caveats and counterpoints — geography is not destiny
Regions and states can and do shift: the South was once Democratic for generations before flipping Republican over decades, and several states that had long been considered reliably one color have swung in recent cycles [8] [3]. Media conventions like “red” and “blue” are relatively recent journalistic constructs dating to the 2000 election and can obscure nuance such as urban-rural splits within states or changes in party coalitions over time [12]. Party registration and local offices sometimes tell a different story than presidential results, so state-level labels are shorthand rather than immutable facts [7].
6. Bottom line — a practical map for “mostly”
Using historical presidential-vote streaks, recent margins and contemporary PVI/registration data together produces a practical division: a core of Mountain/Plains and much of the Deep South “mostly” votes Republican (Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, North Dakota, West Virginia among the clearest examples), while coastal states and many large urbanized Northeastern and West Coast states “mostly” vote Democratic (California, New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and others), and a handful of battlegrounds (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Florida at times) remain competitive and pivotal [8] [2] [5] [3] [6].