Elections & terms
battleground state
A state where both parties have a realistic chance, so campaigns concentrate money, visits, and organizing there. Also called a swing state.
In full
Because most states award all their electoral votes to the statewide winner, campaigns rationally ignore states they cannot lose or cannot win. The set of battlegrounds shifts over time with demographic and political change, and the concentration of attention on a handful of states is one of the central criticisms of the Electoral College.
Also written as: swing state
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.