The outcome of the 2020 election could depend on just 4 states

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

last updated 2 September 2019

The 2020 general election could ultimately boil down to just four states, making it the narrowest electoral map for a presidential contest in recent memory, The Washington Post reports.

"Because of the partisanship of the country and the partisanship of the president, we are now looking at the smallest map in modern political history," Jim Messina, the campaign manager for former President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, said.

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The Post points out that part of the reason the terrain has narrowed so much is that Trump has done little to expand his base, while it's unclear if states like Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina are really ready to shift from red to blue. If that's not the case, and Trump doesn't flip any blue states, the election's fate will reside in Florida and the Great Lakes Region. The Post reports that if the Democrats win Florida, the party may need only to secure one of the other three states to turn the tide. Read more at The Washington Post.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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