A Key(stone) Flip

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…

Read More

Streaky

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…

Read More

The Invisible Party

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…

Read More

Where Democratic Tickets Are Born

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,…

Read More

Remember When?

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…

Read More

Closer Than Most

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…

Read More

Klobuchar Gets the Bronze

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…

Read More

The Closest Shave

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…

Read More

The 50 Millionth Voter

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…

Read More

Two For the Price of One

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…

Read More