Political Crumbs

Tina Smith’s reelection victory with 48.7 percent marked a nation-leading 12th time that Minnesotans elected a U.S. Senator with a plurality of the vote in the direct election era. Smith also became the fourth plurality-winning U.S. Senate nominee in Minnesota in the 21st Century following Mark Dayton in 2000 (48.8 percent), Norm Coleman in 2002…

Alaska and Utah are two of the nine states where Republican presidential nominees have won 14 consecutive elections since 1968. Joe Biden, however, scored the best showing in these two Western states since Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory there in 1964. In Alaska, Biden won 42.8 percent – slightly besting Hubert Humphrey’s 42.7 percent in 1968…

When the 2020 vote is certified, new records for the closest presidential election will have been set in two states. Joe Biden’s victory margin over Donald Trump in Arizona currently rests at 0.31 points – well below the previous mark set 56 years ago when native son Barry Goldwater defeated President Lyndon Johnson by 0.99…

For the third time in state history, Pennsylvania was the state with the largest number of Electoral College votes to flip in a presidential election. The Keystone State also held that mark in 1860 (with 27 EV) when it flipped from Democrat to Republican backing Abraham Lincoln after James Buchanan in 1856 and in 1936…

Three states are poised to break records this cycle for the longest consecutive presidential winning streak by one of the two major parties. In Maryland, the state is set to back the Democratic nominee for an eighth consecutive cycle since 1992, breaking a tie with a mark set from 1868-1892. Likewise, Colorado is expected to…

For the first time since 1930, there will be only one major party nominee in a South Dakota U.S. House election. Republican freshman Dusty Johnson will not face a Democratic nominee but will be opposed by Libertarian Randy Luallin. This ends a string of 70 consecutive elections in which both parties fielded nominees in races…

Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris to be his running mate means all 12 Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees since 2000 have been sitting (Joe Lieberman, 2000; John Kerry and John Edwards, 2004; Barack Obama and Joe Biden, 2008; Tim Kaine, 2016; Harris 2020) or former (Al Gore, 2000; Obama and Biden, 2012; Hillary Clinton,…

Less than a decade ago, during the 111th Congress, Democrats held a majority of U.S. House seats in the (now very red) states of Arkansas (three of four seats), Indiana (five of nine), Mississippi (three of four), North Dakota (at-large), South Dakota (at-large), Tennessee (five of nine), and West Virginia (two of three). Cumulatively, Democrats…

Amy McGrath’s 2.8-point victory over Charles Booker in Kentucky’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary goes down in the books as one of the most narrowly decided for the office in state history. Of the 85 U.S. Senate primaries across all parties since 1914, only three were more competitive (all Democratic): Lois Combs Weinberg’s 0.2-point win against…

Amy Klobuchar turned heads Tuesday with her strong third-place showing in New Hampshire, but it wasn’t the best performance by a Minnesotan in a Granite State presidential primary. In 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy famously came close to beating President Lyndon Johnson with 41.9 percent in a second-place finish, a few weeks after which LBJ officially…