Political Crumbs

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…

For each of the last seven election cycles since the 1990s, the closest presidential election contest has been held in the South (Georgia in 1992, Kentucky in 1996, Florida in 2000 and 2012) or the Midwest (Wisconsin in 2004, Missouri in 2008, Michigan in 2016). The Northeast region has hosted the nation’s most competitive race…

At some point on November 3, 2020 an unknown Minnesotan will cast the state’s 50 millionth general election vote for president. Over the previous 40 cycles since 1860, there have been 47,409,575 votes for president cast in the Gopher State, which has consistently boasted one of the highest voter turnout rates in the country in…

Political observers get to follow the returns of two U.S. House special elections held today in North Carolina (NC-03 and NC-09). The last time two specials were held on the same day in the same state outside of a November midterm or presidential Election Day was on May 3, 2008 when Republican Steve Scalise and…

A record 23 women were nominated by major parties to the U.S. Senate in 2018, although it may be a challenge to see that number equaled or increased in 2020. There were 13 incumbent women on the ballot last cycle compared to just seven that are up for reelection next year: Martha McSally (AZ), Joni…

It is expected that term-limited Montana Governor Steve Bullock will announce his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination later this month. That will give Montana its first presidential candidate in nearly 70 years. The last Treasure State political figure to be considered for the White House was Democratic U.S. Senator James Murray in 1952. Murray…

The long-shot presidential candidacy of former West Virginia Democratic state Senator Richard Ojeda ended last week. Brief as it was – lasting just 76 days – Ojeda’s White House bid was not the shortest in the modern primary era. Since 1972, three other non-fringe major party presidential hopefuls had shorter stays on the campaign trail.…

The 116th Congress will convene 13 U.S. Senators who were most recently elected to the chamber with a plurality of the vote (seven Democrats and six Republicans) – dropping from 15 such lawmakers ending the 115th Congress. That marks the sixth consecutive congress with 10 or more senators who did not win the support of…