(NEXSTAR) - Texas has been a red state since the U.S. began labeling states red or blue back in 2000 (more on that later). With 40 electoral votes, Texas is one of the country's most influential red states, but when was the last time the state didn't vote Republican during the presidential election?
To find the answer to this, you'd have to go back a few decades all the way to the presidential election of 1976 when Texas put its electoral college votes behind Jimmy Carter for president.
This selection wasn't an anomaly for the state of Texas, however. During the 20th century, Texas voted blue in 16 of the 25 presidential elections.
But overall, since Texas voted for Carter, the state has voted for the Republican candidate for the last 11 straight elections.
On a local level, Texas has backed the red state trend of generally voting Republican for their governor as well. Since 1995, a Republican has been the governor of Texas every year with Ann Richards being the last Democrat to hold the position.
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 (R), the state would turn the color blue and if they voted for Jimmy Carter (D) 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 (R) as red states, and states that voted for Al Gore (D) 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.
