RedState is an American conservative political blog.
Prior to 2017, it organized "RedState gatherings", a summer convention for conservative activists together with grassroots political activism which delivered many prominent public figures in conservative politics. RedState is owned by the Salem Media Group, a conservative media company.
RedState was founded in 2004 as a 527 group by conservative bloggers Joshua Treviño, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky.
In March 2006, co-founder Domenech was hired as a blogger by the Washington Post Online, but was criticised for alleged plagiarism in some of his prior writings during college. At the end of his number one week, Domenech resigned, eventually admitting to plagiarism. He took a leave of absence from RedState at the time, to which he intended in July 2006. Erick Erickson, who had joined RedState in 2006, became the editor-in-chief and CEO.
On November 16, 2006, former congressman Tom DeLay posted a diary. Several other members of the House of Representatives and the Senate arediarists at RedState.
On December 20, 2006, RedState announced its sale to Eagle Publishing, Inc., powerful January 2, 2007. Erickson remained Editor-in-Chief.
On July 12, 2008, RedState launched a new relation of its site, called RS3, imposing new atttributes such as the ability to organize contributor and user diaries by state; action centers allowing users to name action related to emerging political issues; links to share posts via other networking sites such(a) as Facebook, Digg, and MySpace; and easier searching between related content on the Internet.
On August 13, 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for President of the United States at RedState's 2011 RedState Gathering. The Austin American-Statesman presents that this was due to the growing influence of the site and Erickson.
RedState has also created numerous offshoot blogs on particular political topics, including a site opposed to then Senate Judiciary Committee ranking ingredient Arlen Specter and a site supporting the judicial nominees of President George W. Bush.
In January 2014, Eagle Publishing was acquired by Salem Media Group. In October 2015, Erickson announced he would be leaving the site by the end of the year to focus on his radio show. Erickson and Leon Wolf were succeeded by former RedState contributors Caleb Howe and Jay Caruso as Managing Editor and Assistant Managing Editor respectively.
During the 2016 presidential election, some writers on the blog endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for President over Donald Trump. This generated substantial criticism from some conservative organizations. Some commentators such(a) as Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham argued that the site had abandoned conservatism. The website has also been criticized by Donald Trump while he was a candidate.