Our “Red State-Blue State” feature puts economic data into context as we look ahead to the 2020 presidential election.

If “It’s the economy, stupid” decides political battles, let’s see how my trusty spreadsheet calculates state-by-state business trends when looking through a presidential election’s prism. Let’s remember, many voters make ballot-box decisions based on how their checkbook is feeling.

Key factor: Job growth, because if bosses are hiring the electorate is likely to be happy.

How’s it measured: December’s job count vs. a year earlier.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

The patterns

Let’s start with slicing the nation into “red” states (those that supported Donald Trump in his winning 2016 presidential bid) and the “blue” states that did not vote for Trump …

Nationwide: 152.8 million workers in December, up 2.09 million in a year. That’s 1.38% growth.

30 red states: 84.7 million workers, up 1.20 million in a year. That’s 1.43% growth.

21 blue states (including D.C.): 68.1 million workers, up 889,900 in a year. That’s 1.32% growth.

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Red states are outperforming collectively, but national results don’t win the White House. Presidents are elected by the Electoral College system where individual states’ results matter. So by state, here’s how the job stats break down …

Nationwide: 45 states with job gains or 88%.

30 red states: 25 gainers or 83%.

21 blue states (including D.C.): 20 gainers or 95%.

But the Electoral College decides the presidency by giving each state a number of votes largely based on their population. Here’s how job growth looks, over the past 12 months, when measured by collective Electoral College votes.

30 red states: Jobs grew in states with 281 electoral votes combined, or 92% of Trump’s state wins. (Note: 270 Electoral College “votes” are needed to win the White House!)

21 blue states (including D.C.): Jobs grew in states with 233 electoral votes, or 84% of Trump’s state losses.