Swing states are the handful of states
in any presidential election that is
competitive. They're competitive for a
variety of reasons it can be historical
reasons, it can be the certain
demographics that make up a state, but
ultimately these are the states where
presidential elections are decided. It's
where 75 percent or more of a candidates
money is spent and on election day
whoever wins the most swing states ends
up becoming president. Swing states
matter because the U.S. presidential
election does not happen by a national
vote or a national referendum. The
presidential election is 50 individual
state races and a race in the District of
Columbia. There are a lot of states that
Republicans know they're going to win
and a lot of states that Democrats know
they're going to win but there's a small
group of states that are up for grabs,
that are swing states, that are the
states where competitive dynamics come
together to determine, ultimately, who the
president is going to be. And its in these
states that money is spent, time is spent, and
the candidates appear most often and
ultimately the winner of those states is the individual who crosses that
270 vote threshold.
An example of a key swing state is
North Carolina. In the 2008
election North Carolina was one of the
closest races in the country, then
senator, Obama barely eked out a win for
the electoral votes in that state
beating john mccain in 2012
however Obama's fortune changed and Mitt
Romney was able to win North Carolina.
What that tells candidates moving
forward, is that this is a state that
swings back and forth and if a candidate
wants to win those electoral votes
they're gonna have to put in the time
the money, the energy, and most
importantly, the strategy to try to get,
for a Democrat, North Carolina to flip
back, or for Republican, to keep that
state red.
Presidential campaigns the united states
are now a billion-dollar affair in 2016
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton raised
over a billion dollars...
