Election Geography Reimagined: Trumpland’s Mountains and Harris’s Islands

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Political maps don’t have to be just red and blue. Following the tradition of my previous electoral terrain visualizations from 2016 and 2020, I’ve once again transformed voting data into physical geography – where Republican strongholds rise as mountains and Democratic urban centers become islands in a political sea.

Let’s start with “Trumpland”:

Just as in my previous electoral terrain maps, areas, where Trump received over 50% of votes, become land, with the height corresponding to his level of support. Strong Trump territories form mountains and ridges, while areas with lower support create hills and plains.

Democratic-leaning areas appear as bodies of water, their depth reflecting the strength of Democratic support, creating seas, bays, and lakes across the map.

Want to see how this landscape changed since 2020? Move the slider:

The changes are striking. Former bays have become lakes as Trump gained ground in places like Miami. Cowlitz Island transformed into a peninsula, and Trump’s Great Ridge gained several new peaks, etc. Meanwhile, some Democratic strongholds became shallower waters, reflecting shifting political tides.

Now for the other side of this visualization series – the “Harris Archipelago”:

This map shows another way to visualize the results. Urban areas with high population density typically vote Democratic, and on this map, they appear as islands. The vast rural areas that tend to support Republican candidates become the surrounding sea.

See how this political archipelago evolved since 2020:

The changes tell quite a story. Several urban areas that stood as islands in 2020 have submerged into the Republican Sea. Other islands got smaller, showing how Harris received less support than Biden did in many metropolitan areas.

I’d love to hear what you notice about your area. Did your local landscape rise or sink? Maybe your bay turned into a lake, or your island joined the mainland? Drop a comment below – sometimes the most interesting changes are the ones that didn’t make headlines.