How Is Senate Majority Chosen
The Senate Republican and Democratic floor leaders are elected by the members of their party in the Senate at the beginning of each Congress. Depending on which party is in power, one serves as majority leader and the other as minority leader. The leaders serve as spokespersons for their partys positions on issues.
Democrats Lose Senate Seat In Alabama
Democratic Senator Doug Jones has lost his race in Alabama, CBS News projects. Jones’ loss is expected, but it means the Democrats need another seat to take back control of the Senate. Democrats have picked up one seat so far, in Colorado.;
Many consider Jones’ tenure as a senator from ruby-red Alabama to be a fluke. He won the seat in a 2017 special election to fill the vacancy left by Jeff Sessions, who became Mr. Trump’s first attorney general. Jones narrowly defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore, who faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls. This year, Jones was less fortunate with his opponent. He was defeated by Tommy Tuberville, the well-known, beloved former coach of the Auburn University football team.;
Meanwhile, CBS News projects Republican Senator John Cornyn won his reelection race in Texas, defeating Democrat MJ Hegar.
What Is The Difference Between Republicans And Democrats
Republicans and Democrats are the two main and historically the largest political parties in the US and, after every election, hold the majority seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the highest number of Governors. Though both the parties mean well for the US citizens, they have distinct differences that manifest in their comments, decisions, and history. These differences are mainly ideological, political, social, and economic paths to making the US successful and the world a better place for all. Differences between the two parties that are covered in this article rely on the majority position though individual politicians may have varied preferences.
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Annual Congressional Competitiveness Report 2020
Ballotpedia’s Annual Congressional Competitiveness report for 2020 includes information on the number of elections featuring candidates from both major parties, the number of open seats, and more.
HIGHLIGHTS
Iowa Montana And South Carolina
Though Iowa, Montana and South Carolina are all traditionally right-leaning, polls had shown tight Senate races in those states, and the Cook Political Report had rated each a tossup. But come Election Day, Republicans easily won each race.
In Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst, the Republican incumbent, dispatched Theresa Greenfield, her Democratic challenger, by 6.6 percentage points. In Montana, Senator Steve Daines, the Republican incumbent, won by more than 10 percentage points against Steve Bullock, Montanas two-term Democratic governor.
And in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, survived a challenge by Jaime Harrison, a former chairman of the states Democratic Party, winning by 10.3 percentage points.
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Democrats May Have Control At The Federal Level But Republicans Are Pushing Back Through States
30 state legislatures are now controlled by Republicans, while only 18 are controlled by Democrats.
Though the hotly anticipated Blue Wave did not sweep over the country as thoroughly as some analysts had predicted in the weeks and months leading up to the American election on November 3, 2020, theres no denying that Democrats notched major victories in both the Senate and the White House, despite losing several seats in the House of Representatives.
But that victory is beginning to be undercut by the majority of state legislatures, which are Republican-controlled, as they begin to enact stricter voting laws, pass state sovereignty bills and push through highly conservative legislation to push back against Democratic ideologies in Washington.
Map: Republicans To Have Full Control Of 23 States Democrats 15
In 2021, Republicans will have full control of the legislative and executive branch in 23 states.;Democrats will have full control of the legislative and executive branch in 15 states.
Population of the 24 fully R-controlled states:;134,035,267Population of the 15 fully D-controlled states: 120,326,393
Republicans have full control of the legislative branch in 30 states. Democrats have full control of the legislative branch in 18;states.
Population of the 30 fully R-controlled legislature states: 185,164,412Population of the 18 fully D-controlled legislature states: 133,888,565
This week, Andrew Cuomos star went down in flames. While the smoke clears, lets take a moment to sit back and reminisce about the governors long history with ethical and legal violations.
Cuomos controversies regarding sexual harassment and nursing homes deaths were far from his first abuses of power. In fact, his administration has a long history of it, ranging from interfering with ethics commissions, to financial corruption.
In July 2013, Cuomo formed the Moreland Commission to investigate corruption in New Yorks government. At first it was a success, giving Cuomo good PR. Yet as it went on there were rumors that, contrary to his claim that Anything they want to look at they can look at, Cuomo was interfering with the Commissions investigations. There was friction within the Commission, itself with two factions forming: Team Independence and Team We-Have-a-Boss.
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Impact Of Special Elections On Partisan Composition
The partisan breakdown for the special elections was as follows:
In districts where the incumbent legislator does not run for re-election, the seat is guaranteed to a newcomer.
- 85.1% of incumbents sought re-election, the highest percentage in a decade.
- 14.9% of incumbents did not run for re-election, meaning newcomers were guaranteed to win those seats.
- 394 Democratic state legislators did not seek re-election.
- 477 Republican state legislators did not seek re-election.
- Six third party or independent state legislators did not seek re-election.
Click on the table header below for complete, state-by-state information on open seats and guaranteed newcomers.
| Open state legislative seats, 2020 |
|---|
| State |
As the charts below show, there were 1,135 fewer primary candidates in 2020 than in 2018, reaching levels similar to 2016 and 2014. 2020 saw the lowest number of open seats, meaning more incumbents seeking re-election, compared to the previous three even-year elections. The number of incumbents facing primaries was roughly similar to 2016 and 2014, but less than 2018. There were fewer total primaries in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2016, but more than there were in 2014.
To read more about the competitiveness of state legislative primary elections in 2020, .
Congress Has Far More Democratic Than Republican Women Thats Not Likely To Change
The 2020 elections more than doubled the number of Republican women in the U.S. House, from 13 to 31, and increased the number of Republican women in state legislatures. The increase was so notable that CBS News called 2020 the Year of the Republican women.
But those increases are still marginal compared with the numbers and percentages of Democratic women in the House, Senate and state legislatures and remain precarious. House Republicans removed their colleague Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership position in May, and a Republican woman lost to a Republican man in a recent special runoff election for a congressional seat in Texas featuring from an earlier contest. Whats more, Republicans recently did not rebuke former president Donald Trumps about a qualified GOP female candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Why is there such a yawning gap between the gender composition of the two parties elected officials? Neither Trump nor a single bad election cycle caused that gender gap, my research finds. Rather, over the past half-century, ideological, regional and racial realignments within the two major parties have helped Democratic women run and win while throwing up barriers for Republican women.
How wide is the gender gap between the two parties?
A similar gender gap divides the parties in state legislatures: About half of Democratic lawmakers and under a fifth of Republicans are female.
Barriers to electing GOP women in the South
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Who Are The Winners And Losers
Maine Democrats had high hopes of unseating Susan Collins, the 67-year-old moderate Republican who had been trailing her Democrat rival in the polls for months.
But Sara Gideon, 48, conceded in a call to Ms Collins on Wednesday afternoon.
So far, Democrats have managed a net gain of one seat in the Senate election.
Democratic former governor John Hickenlooper won a key Colorado seat from the Republican incumbent Cory Gardner.
Mr Hickenlooper, who stood for the Democratic nomination for president, was governor of Colorado for two terms from 2011 until last year. His rival was considered particularly vulnerable because of his allegiance to President Trump.
In Arizona, former astronaut Mark Kelly defeated Republican incumbent and former fighter pilot Martha McSally. Mr Kelly earlier said he was “confident that when the votes are counted, we’re going to be successful in this mission”.
However, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump ally Lindsey Graham have both been re-elected in their seats of Kentucky and South Carolina respectively.
And in Alabama, Republican candidate Tommy Tuberville took a seat from the Democratic incumbent Doug Jones.
Seats Without Major Party Opposition
- See also: Major party candidates with major party competition in the November 2020 state legislative elections
In 2020, 2,067 state legislative seats, 35.2% of all seats up for election, did not have major party competition. When a candidate from only one of either the Democratic or Republican parties runs for a state legislative seat, the seat is all but guaranteed to be won by that party.
- Democrats contested 82.7% of all state legislative seats. 1,019 state legislative seats did not feature a Democratic candidate and were likely to be won by a Republican.
- Republicans contested 82.4% of all state legislative seats. 1,032 seats did not feature a Republican candidate and were likely to be won by a Democrat.
- In 11 states, more than half of all seats did not have major party competition.
- In four states, more than 90% of all candidates had major party competition.
The five states with the most major party competition in the general election were:
The five states with the least major party competition in the general election were:
Click on the table below to see details of seats up for election without major party competition in each state.
| Seats without major party competition, 2020 |
|---|
| State |
During even years, state legislative elections have had an average of 6,039 seats up for election. Of those seats, an average of 1,134 have been open, meaning an incumbent was not seeking re-election.
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What Democrats Needed To Happen
Entering Election Day, Republicans held a three-seat advantage over Democrats in the Senate. That meant that in order for Democrats to take control of the chamber in 2021, they needed to flip at least three seats and most likely four assuming they also won the White House.
If Democrats were to pick up three seats, then Kamala Harris, as vice president, would be able to break a 50-50 tie in the Senate. But Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama, was widely expected to lose his race in the deep red state, so realistically, most Democrats expected they would have to flip a fourth Republican seat.
In that scenario, Democrats also had to defend the other 11 seats held by Democratic incumbents that were up for grabs this cycle, including one in the battleground state of Michigan.
Election Results : Veto
- See also: State government trifectas
Two state legislatures saw changes in their veto-proof majority statusâtypically when one party controls either three-fifths or two-thirds of both chambersâas a result of the 2020 elections. Democrats gained veto-proof majorities in Delaware and New York, bringing the number of state legislatures with a veto-proof majority in both chambers to 24: 16 held by Republicans and eight held by Democrats.
Forty-four states held regularly-scheduled state legislative elections on November 3. Heading into the election, there were 22 state legislatures where one party had a veto-proof majority in both chambers; 16 held by Republicans and six held by Democrats. Twenty of those states held legislative elections in 2020.
The veto override power can play a role in conflicts between state legislatures and governors. Conflict can occur when legislatures vote to override gubernatorial vetoes or in court cases related to vetoes and the override power.
Although it has the potential to create conflict, the veto override power is rarely used. According to political scientists Peverill Squire and Gary Moncrief in 2010, only about five percent of vetoes are overridden.
| Changes in state legislative veto-proof majorites | |
|---|---|
| State | |
| Democratic veto-proof majority in state House | Democratic veto-proof majority in state legislature |
| Democratic veto-proof majority in state Assembly | Democratic veto-proof majority in state legislature |
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Republicans Introduce 253 Bills To Restrict Voting Rights In States Across The Us
Republican lawmakers in 43 states have introduced a total of 253 bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot box for tens of millions of people. Republican-controlled states, including Southern states that employed lynch law terror to block African Americans from voting during the decades-long period of Jim Crow segregation, are flooding their legislatures with measures to effectively disenfranchise working class, poor and minority voters.
The laws largely focus on tightening voter ID requirements, purging voter rolls and restricting absentee and mail-in ballots.
In the United States, state governments have the authority to oversee elections and determine election procedures and rules, including for national elections. Within each state, individual counties have a great deal of latitude in the conduct of elections.
Republicans control both the lower and upper legislative houses in 36 of the 50 states, and both the legislatures and governorships in 23 states, making it very possible for far-reaching barriers to the ballot box to be imposed across much of the country.
Despite opening the door for a return to restrictive and discriminatory voting practices, the 2013 ruling met with little resistance on the part of the Democratic Party. Neither the Obama White House nor the congressional Democrats mounted any serious effort to reverse the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act by enacting new legislation in the years since the reactionary Shelby ruling.
Texas
States That Gained Seats
The three most populous states to gain seats are Texas, Florida and North Carolina, and in each, Republicans will control the redistricting process. For the first time in decades, they wont have to seek preclearance from the Justice Department either before implementing their maps thanks to the 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the Voting Rights Act. That, in turn, could open the door for more extreme gerrymandering in these states, which historically disenfranchised voters of color.;
For instance, Republicans will at least try to draw Texass two new districts to be as safe as possible for Republicans. But they also face the challenge that Texass suburbs its fastest-growing areas are rapidly becoming more Democratic, which threatened to blow up their 2011 gerrymander. According to Daily Kos Elections, Biden came within 3 percentage points of carrying 22 out of Texass current 36 districts in the 2020 election. So in an effort to shore up Republican incumbents in some areas, the Texas legislature may be forced to create safe new districts for Democrats in places like Austin, Dallas or Houston. But even if one or both of the new seats are blue, Texass map will still likely benefit Republicans overall , muddying the question of which party truly benefits from reapportionment here.
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Control Of The Senate Could Be Decided By Georgia Races
;There are two races up in Georgia this election, a regular Senate race and special election. The rules in Georgia for both the regular Senate election and the Senate special election require a candidate to win a majority, and if none of the candidates clear the 50% threshold, the race goes to a runoff in January.;
Recent polling in the race between incumbent GOP Senator David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff has been tight, and the presence of a libertarian candidate on the ballot could prevent either Perdue or Ossoff from clearing the majority. In the special election, 21 candidates have qualified to be on the ballot, including Democrat Raphael Warnock, who has led in recent polls. GOP candidates Senator Kelly Loeffer, who was appointed to the seat last year, and Congressman Doug Collins are also on the ballot. If no candidate clears the majority, that race will also go to a runoff in January.
