With most of America stuck in red and blue states, the choice of Denver and Minneapolis for the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions, respectively, is a look to the future. Democrats believe they can compete in Colorado and the Southwest and Republicans in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

The 2004 convention sites were not about the future. For Republicans, New York City reminded voters of the attacks of Sept. 11 and the leadership of President Bush and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. While New York had a Republican mayor and governor, that was more due to the unique talents of Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg and George Pataki than to a rising Republican tide.

Boston was a safe choice for Democrats, but with all 12 members of the congressional delegation and over two-thirds of both houses of the state legislature in Democratic hands, there was not much room for Democratic growth in the Bay State.

2008 will be different. Both parties have chosen cities in regions that they hope will break them out of the current stable red-and-blue map. Consider that only Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico switched party allegiance in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Minneapolis and Denver are in a sense the capitals of regions that Republicans and Democrats see as their future.

Since 1968, Colorado has voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election except for 1992, when Bill Clinton eked out a win, helped by Ross Perot taking 23 percent of the vote. Minnesota has been similarly reliable in the other direction, going for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1960, except in Nixon’s 49-state rout of McGovern in 1972.

But times are changing. Colorado and the rest of the Southwestern states have been growing at a staggering pace, and a good chunk of that growth comes from Hispanics, who lean Democratic. Democrats are also extremely heartened by their performance in 2004 and 2006, when they made significant gains in Congress, state legislatures and statewide races.

Minnesota and its neighboring states are growing much more slowly, and they are heavily white and aging, two demographic groups that have been reliably Republican.

While some of the old-farm populism persists and has helped elect liberal senators in the Paul Wellstone mold, the politics of Minnesota is not monolithically Democratic. Bush lost Minnesota by less than 2.5 percent in 2000, and Sen. Norm Coleman and Gov. Tim Pawlenty have won three statewide races between them. Even in the Democratic wave of 2006, Republicans did not fare as badly as they might have, considering the reelection of Pawlenty and Michelle Bachmann’s holding Mark Kennedy’s open House seat.

The 2008 conventions will highlight congressional nominees in high-profile races. Two of the most competitive Senate races in the country are in Minnesota and Colorado. We may see Norm Coleman face off against comedian and talk show host Al Franken. In Colorado, the open seat of retiring Sen. Wayne Allard (R) could see Democratic Rep. Mark Udall facing off against former Republican Gov. Bill Owens.

In House races, Republicans will be looking to knock off Tim Walz, who beat Gil Gutknecht in November in a Minnesota district that Bush twice won narrowly; freshman Ed Perlmutter in a Colorado swing district; and Colorado sophomore John Salazar, whose district Bush won with 55 percent in 2004.

Finally, if Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is the nominee, the Republican convention will be abuzz about the possibility of Pawlenty as a running mate.

Conventions are too often in all the familiar places, but in 2008 the parties are looking to their futures.

Fortier is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.