Type of site
|
Political blog |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Salem Communications |
Created by | Joshua Treviño, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky |
Editor | Caleb Howe |
Website | RedState.com |
Alexa rank | 17,095 (January 2016[update]) |
Registration | Optional, required to comment |
Launched | 2004 |
Current status | Online |
RedState is an American conservative political blog. It functions as an opinion based discussion forum and group blog for a variety of conservative activists. Annually, it organizes RedState gatherings for grassroots political activism which feature many prominent public figures in conservative politics.
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 first week, Domenech resigned, eventually admitting to plagiarism. He took a leave of absence from RedState at the time, from which he returned in July 2006 under a new handle (his own name).
On November 16, 2006, former congressman Tom DeLay posted a diary. Several other members of the House of Representatives and the US Senate are regular diarists at RedState.
On December 20, 2006, RedState announced its sale to Eagle Publishing, Inc., effective January 2, 2007. Erick Erickson remained Editor-in-Chief.
On July 12, 2008, RedState launched a new version of its site, called RS3, introducing new features such as the ability to organize contributor and user diaries by state; action centers allowing users to take action related to emerging political issues; links to share posts via other networking sites such 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 reported that this was due to the growing influence of the site and Erickson.