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'''Swing states''' are [[state]]s in which neither the [[Republican]] nor [[Democratic]] candidate has a clear majority of the voters' support prior to a Presidential election, and therefore could "swing" the election results in either direction. They are also known as "battleground states" because they are where the majority of the campaigning takes place for both parties. Since states that consistently express a preference for either the Democratic or Republican candidate are usually referred to as [[blue state]]s and [[red state]]s, respectively, these states are also called "purple states" in order to highlight their mixed demographic nature. Hundreds of millions of dollars in negative ads by [[Super PAC]]s are spent in swing states.  These states take on increased significance because most states award their electoral college votes on a winner-take-all basis. So, if one candidate gains a slim majority of the votes from a swing state, all of the electoral college votes are awarded to that candidate, despite the votes of the other 49% of the state's voters. A notable example of a swing state is [[Florida]], where the southern portion of the state is solidly Democratic while the northern portion is solidly Republican. [[Maine]] and [[Nebraska]] are the only two current exceptions, and ; both states allocate split their electoral votes based upon vote between those representing congressional districts(the winner of the district receives the vote) and those representing Senators (the winner of the statewide vote receives these two votes). The two states can have "swing congressional districts"; however, only one time (2008, in Nebraska) did a district go to a candidate other than the statewide winner.

Swing state politics is having an enormous influence on policy: [[Obama]]'s abrupt change in [[deportation]] policy was probably due to how [[Mitt Romney]] has erased Obama's lead in the key swing state of [[Colorado]], and narrowed the lead in [[Nevada]] and [[Virginia]], all of which have large [[Hispanic]] populations.<ref>httphttps://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/233037-obama-takes-action-on-deportations-as-romney-closes-gap-in-swing-states</ref>