The seven-state Electoral College battleground of 2024 became such a cliche that it's hard to believe that states other than Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ever mattered. But, you don’t need to go that far back in history to be reminded that it wasn’t always this way. States' partisan leanings are ever-evolving, sometimes in incongruous ways.
As recently as 2005, the states of West Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri and Iowa performed within a few points of the nation as a whole. Today, obviously, they've exited stage right. The same was true back then of Oregon, Washington and Colorado, which have exited stage left.
The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠), which debuted in 1997, is best known for measuring how much redder or bluer congressional districts are than the nation as a whole. Today we're releasing new 2025 Cook PVI values for all 50 states plus DC (updated district-level PVI will be released in early April). The Cook PVI measures each state and district's performance in the two most recent presidential cycles against the
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The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends.
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Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.