How Many Democrats And Republicans Are In The Us Senate

Some Republicans Drift From Trump As Democrats Warm Up To Biden

Some Republican candidates are trying to publicly distance themselves from former President Trump just as President Biden is beginning to see small signs of Democrats more openly embracing him.

Trump-endorsed candidates including Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz and Arizona Attorney General nominee Abe Hamadeh have scrubbed aspects of Trumps presence from their Twitter accounts following their primary victories.

In Arizona, Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters removed language from his campaign website asserting that if the 2020 presidential election had been free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today and America would be so much better off.

At the same time, Democratic nominees in the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania are planning to appear with Biden in the upcoming weeks.

Of course, its not unusual for candidates to downplay some of the more controversial positions they may have staked out during partisan primaries that tend to attract parties most loyal and ideological voters.

And Republicans arent erasing their ties to Trump completely. Ozs campaign website still prominently features a picture of the former president and notes that hes been endorsed by Trump. Masters website, meanwhile, features a badge on its homepage reading Trump endorsed. Trump is set to hold a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday for Oz and Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano.

The Parties Change Course

After the war, the Republican Party became more and more oriented towards economic growth, industry, and big business in Northern states, and in the beginning of the 20th century it had reached a general status as a party for the more wealthy classes in society. Many Republicans therefore gained financial success in the prosperous 1920s until the stock market crashed in 1929 initiating the era of the Great Depression.

Now, many Americans blamed Republican President Herbert Hoover for the financial damages brought by the crisis. In 1932 the country therefore instead elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to be president.

The Democratic Party largely stayed in power until 1980, when Republican Ronald Reagan was elected as president. Reagans social conservative politics and emphasis on cutting taxes, preserving family values, and increasing military funding were important steps in defining the modern Republican Party platform.

Cook Partisan Voting Index

Another metric measuring party preference is the Cook Partisan Voting Index . Cook PVIs are calculated by comparing a state’s average Democratic Party or Republican Party share of the two-party presidential vote in the past two presidential elections to the nation’s average share of the same. PVIs for the states over time can be used to show the trends of U.S. states towards, or away from, one party or the other.

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Democrats Got Millions More Votes So How Did Republicans Win The Senate

Senate electoral process means although Democrats received more overall votes for the Senate than Republicans, that does not translate to more seats

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The 2018 midterm elections brought significant gains for Democrats, who retook the House of Representatives and snatched several governorships from the grip of Republicans.

But some were left questioning why Democrats suffered a series of setbacks that prevented the party from picking up even more seats and, perhaps most consequentially, left the US Senate in Republican hands.

Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber.

Constitutional experts said the discrepancy between votes cast and seats won was the result of misplaced ire that ignored the Senate electoral process.

Because each state gets two senators, irrespective of population, states such as Wyoming have as many seats as California, despite the latter having more than 60 times the population. The smaller states also tend to be the more rural, and rural areas traditionally favor Republicans.

This year, because Democrats were defending more seats, including California, they received more overall votes for the Senate than Republicans, but that does not translate to more seats.

The rise of minority rule in America is now unmistakable

Us Senate Has Fewest Split Delegations Since Direct Elections Began

Only six states now have U.S. senators of different parties the smallest number of split delegations since Americans started directly electing their senators more than a century ago, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

The number of split Senate delegations has ratcheted downward since peaking at 27 in 1979-80. There were just nine split Senate delegations in the recently concluded 116th Congress, which tied the prior record low.

This post examines the long-term decline of politically divided delegations in the U.S. Senate. The analysis begins with the 64th Congress of 1915-17, the first full session following the ratification of the 17th Amendment, which provided for the direct election of senators.

Our main source for the composition of the Senate and party affiliation of individual senators was the online Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, supplemented by contemporaneous media reports.

We tabulated the party affiliations of each sitting senator at the start of each Congress, and also noted changes in membership and party affiliation during each Congress term. Independents and third-party senators are classified with the major party they caucus with, if any.

This analysis examines every Senate since the general election of 1914, the first one after ratification of the 17th Amendment, which provided for the direct election of senators.

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The Battleground States Advancing Controversial Election And Voting Bills

May 7, 2021 / 9:51 AM / CBS News

Washington Several battleground states controlled by Republicans have pushed for big changes in voting and election laws in recent months, in the wake of former President Donald Trumps electoral loss and a rise in mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

These states are considering changes to election laws, such as measures to enforce additional ID requirements, restrict access to dropboxes and shrink the pool of voters.

Arizona, Florida, and Texas each have growing and increasingly diverse populations and play a substantial role in the outcome of presidential contests. All three have Republican legislatures and governorships. Michigan has a Democratic governor, but its Republican-controlled legislature is considering several bills that could make absentee voting more difficult.

Arizona and Michigan narrowly supported President Biden in the 2020 election, and Mr. Trump won Florida and Texas. Georgia, which Mr. Biden also won, has already passed a controversial voting law including some new restrictions.

Here is a rundown of some of the key states states proposing changes to voting and election laws:

Registered Democratic Voters Outnumber Republicans By Nearly 90k In Nevada

The Nevada secretary of states office on Friday reported there are 1,464,819 active registered voters statewide who are eligible to participate in the Nov. 8 general election.

CARSON CITY The Nevada secretary of states office on Friday reported there are 1,464,819 active registered voters statewide who are eligible to participate in the Nov. 8 general election.

There are 577,679 Democrats, 488,861 Republicans and 304,528 nonpartisans. The rest are minor- party registered voters.

Democrats represent 39.4 percent of the total active registered voters, Republicans 33.4 percent and nonpartisans 20.8 percent.

The numbers were released one day before early voting for the general election begins in Nevada.

The total number of active registered voters is up by 251,626, an increase of 21 percent, compared to the 2014 general election close-of-registration figures.

In the last presidential election in 2012, there were 1,257,621 active registered voters, with 526,986 Democrats and 436,799 Republicans. President Barack Obama won Nevada in 2012.

Active Democratic voters in 2012 were 41.9 percent compared to 39.4 percent this year Republicans accounted for 34.7 percent in 2012 and 33.4 percent in 2016. The biggest gain over the four years was in nonpartisan voters, from 17.4 percent in 2012 to 20.8 percent this year.

Democrats have voter registration edges in three of Nevadas four congressional districts,

Party affiliation by state Switch to:State by political party

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Figure 6 Party Breakdown Of Trust In Scientists

87% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans trust climate scientists at least a moderate amount, and 84% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans believe that a majority of climate scientists believe that global warming has been happening.

Party identifiers also diverge on what psychologists call attitude strength . Among Democrats, 82% are extremely or very sure of their opinions about whether the earth has been warming over the past 100 years, whereas only 40% of Republicans express that high level of certainty.

Likewise, 78% of Democrats expressed high certainty about whether the worlds temperature will go up over the next 100 years if nothing is done to address it, whereas only 41% of Republicans express high certainty about their opinions on this question.

Similarly, 76% of Democrats said that their opinions about global warming are extremely or very strong, whereas only 30% of Republicans said they hold such strong opinions on the issue.

The partisans are more similar when it comes to how much they believe they know about global warming82% of Democrats and 67% of Republicans believe they know at least a moderate amount about the issue.

Most Democratic And Republicancounties In Alabama

Which Alabama counties have the most Democrats and which has the most Republicans?

It turns out even the Reddest of Red states has a drop of Blue.

24/7 Wall Street recently used voting data and a review of current and historical representation in Congress to determine the political leanings counties across the country. That index was then used to determine the most Democratic and most Republican counties in each state.

Alabama is a solid Republican state but the analysis found pockets of Democratic support. For example, in 2012, 61 percent of Alabama voters opted for Republican candidate Mitt Romney, one of the highest shares the losing candidate received from any state. In Greene County, however, 85 percent of the voters cast their ballot for President Obama. Whats more, Greene County helped send a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in each of the last five Congressional elections.

Thats enough to make Greene County the most Democratic county in Alabama.

And what about the most Republican County? There is a lot of competition for that title but the recognition goes to Blount county, according to 24/7 Wall Street. In 2012, more than 86 percent of voters cast their ballot for GOP nominee Romney, the highest share of any county in Alabama. Also, county residents are represented in the House by the 4th and 6th Congressional Districts, both of which are held by Republicans.

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Voter Registration And State Political Control

The state Democratic or Republican Party controls the governorship, the state legislative houses, and U.S. Senate representation. Nebraska’s legislature is unicameral and is officially non-partisan, though party affiliation still has an unofficial influence on the legislative process.

The simplest measure of party strength in a state voting population is the affiliation totals from voter registration for the 30 states and the District of Columbia as of 2019 that allow registered voters to indicate a party preference when registering to vote. 20 states do not include party preference with voter registration. The party affiliations in the party control table are obtained from state party registration figures where indicated. Only Wyoming has a majority of registered voters identifying themselves as Republicans two states have a majority of registered voters identifying themselves as Democrats: and Kentucky .

For those states that do not allow for registration by party, Gallup’s annual polling of voter party identification by state is the next best metric of party strength in the U.S. states. The partisan figures in the table for the 20 states that don’t register voters by party come from Gallup’s poll.

Looking Forward To The Rest Of This Congress

On Wednesday, February 3, the Senate unanimously agreed to S. Res. 27, which codifies the power sharing agreement. It is substantially the same as S. Res. 8 of the 107th Congress, with only minor technical differences that do not affect how it operates. Also, it agreed to resolutions putting majority and minority members on committeesformally allowing the Democrats to take control of the chairmanshipsand electing a Democratic Secretary of the Senate.

In addition to adopting these resolutions, Majority Leader Schumer and Republican Leader McConnell engaged in a dialogue about how they would lead their parties and the Senate for the rest of the Congress. Schumer pledged to open the amendment process, by refraining from filling the amendment tree, a practice whereby the Majority Leader introduces several essentially meaningless amendments that prevent other, substantial amendments from being considered. Its a practice that has increased over the past few decades, to the detriment of the Senates open amendment process. I amopposed to limiting amendments by filling the tree unless dilatory measures prevent the Senate from taking action and leave no alternativesThat is how we will operate in the 117th Congress under the new Democratic majority, Schumer said.

The Sausage Factory blog is a Congressional Institute project dedicated to explaining parliamentary procedure, Congressional politics, and other issues pertaining to the Legislative Branch.

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Senator John Barrasso Republican Of Wyoming

Recently re-elected as chairman of GOP policy committee

Barrasso, a medical doctor who graduated from Georgetown and Yale, runs the committee in charge of summarizing and analyzing major GOP legislation. Last week he called the recently announced US-China deal irresponsible and expensive.

To me, this is an agreement thats terrible for the United States and terrific for the Chinese government and for the politicians there, because it allows China to continue to raise their emissions over the next 16 years, Barrasso said.

All of us want to make energy as clean as we can as fast as we can, he said. We want to do it in ways that dont raise the energy costs for American families and impact their jobs, income, ability to provide for their families. Those are the issues we need to be focusing on.

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The Winding Road To Democratic Control

Following an anxious four days of waiting after the 2020 general election, nearly all major news networks declared that Joe Biden had exceeded 270 electoral votes and won the presidency. Democrats also retained control of the U.S. House, although their majority has been trimmed back .

But the U.S. Senate still hung in the balance, a tantalizing prize for Democrats dreaming of a trifecta, and a bulwark against a Democratic agenda for Republicans who seek to hold onto some power under the new Biden administration that will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021.

Republicans claimed 50 Senate seats after the November election, two more than the 48 seats claimed by the Democratic Caucus at that time.

The Senates balance of power teetered on the fulcrum of Georgias two seats, both of which were decided by the January 5th runoff election. Georgia law requires candidates to be voted in with at least 50% of the votes cast if a candidate does not reach that threshold the two candidates who received the highest number of votes face one another in a runoff election.

Georgias runoff election featured these match-ups:

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Bob Woodward: You Could Write A Whole Book On Lindsey Graham

The House of Representatives voted to pass legislation on Tuesday to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month and suspend the nations borrowing limit, setting up a showdown with Republicans who insist Democrats should act alone to stave off a looming debt crisis. The party line vote was 220-211.

Here’s Why Democrats Could Keep The Senate

Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN

Election Day 2022 is now four months away. Democrats are trying to hold on to slim majorities in both the House and Senate. They’re doing so against the backdrop of high inflation and an economy viewed in poor shape, which is the issue dominating voters’ minds.

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What Limitations Will Senate Democrats Face In Passing Legislation

Most proposed legislation can be filibustered by members of the minority party, which means 60 members must agree to end debate and move the bill to a final vote.

The use of the Senate filibuster has become increasingly more common since the 1700s and is now a routine way of obstructing legislation. Concerns about increasing partisan gridlock have sparked debate over whether to reform the legislative filibuster, which would give the majority party vast authority to pass bills. During the recent filibuster debate between McConnell and Schumer, President Joe Biden remained silent on the issue. Other lawmakers in the past, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called to do away with it.

But advocates for keeping the filibuster said it preserves power for the minority party. Removing the filibuster could also backfire on Democrats if they lose control of the Senate again. As of now, Democrats do not have the votes to end the filibuster but could also consider lowering the threshold, for example from 60 members to 55.

Senate filibuster use over time. Graphic by Danny Davis and Kate Grumke/PBS NewsHour.

There are some very narrow rules around it. It has to have budgetary implications. You cant just stick on any random thing. It has to actually be pretty narrowly tailored, Powell said.