swing state

American  

[swing steyt] / ˈswɪŋ ˌsteɪt /

noun

U.S. Politics.

1. a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election.

   the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.

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Etymology

Origin of swing state

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

swing state

Her leadership of a pivotal swing state made her a talked-about potential Democratic presidential nominee.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

"They know Rome wasn't built in a day," Vance said in the key, blue-collar swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025

Some other polling has suggested a similar shift in places such as Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio, he said, but the trend has not necessarily been showing up in swing state polling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2024

“The best avatar for a voter writ large is a woman in a swing state who didn’t go to college,” says pollster Evan Roth Smith, from Blueprint, a Democratic public opinion research company.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2024

I caught up with a Puerto Rican voter who lives in another swing state: North Carolina, where about 115,000 people of Puerto Rican descent reside.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2024