Here in Australia, our voting system means you can’t waste a vote. If whoever I vote for doesn’t win, my vote gets shifted to the next on my list.

Every year I vote for the Animal Justice Party, Environment Australia, Progressive Unity etc. They never win, but my vote is still registered as having gone to them. Eventually my vote shifts along and either lands on the greens who win my electorate, or labour. But they’ll still see that the Animal Justice Party DID get a lot of votes, and maybe the Greens or Labour will focus more on animal based policy.

If 49% of your American electorate votes blue, maybe your right wing winner will try to appeal to that sizeable demographic by not being so horribly right wing.