Swing State

It's a presidential election and you need to win the Electoral College. Campaign, fundraise, advertise, and win the swing states! SWING STATE is designed around the electoral college and the strategies involved in winning the 12 swing states during a US presidential election. It is super fun, super suspenseful, and the most realistic "game" about running for president you will ever experience. The game can be played between 2 players. It can also be played between 2 teams, ideally with 2 players for each team. One is the presidential candidate for the red team -- she chooses which states to visit each turn. Her teammate is the campaign manager for the red team -- he chooses where to spend the money on advertising. The game begins with a map that reflects the way all 12 swing states actually lean. Pennsylvania leans Democratic by 4 percentage points (based on a historical average of recent presidential elections). That 4% point lean is reflected by four blue chips placed on PA during setup. Virginia, as you can see in the image, leans Red by 5% points (chips). As players campaign and advertize in these states, the chip stacks rise and fall and often flip from one color to the other. A big part of the fun is that Swing State is a game that is easy to learn, easy to set up, and easy to play, but has a very rich mix of strategies that change each time you play. There are seven turns before election night. And what makes this one of the most exciting games you will ever play is that the results of how each state will vote are not revealed until the very end. At the end of the game -- election night -- all of the campaign funds you have invested by playing cards face down on each state are finally revealed.