youtor.org
Senates oddest of odd couples Wisconsins Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson
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Video Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtM3RPhkRxU
In its four U. S. Senate elections since 2010, Wisconsin has twice elected a conservative Republican (Ron Johnson) and twice a liberal Democrat (Tammy Baldwin). It turns out this is a very odd thing to do. In a polarized age, Wisconsin is one of the few states left — just six — that have a senator from each side of the red-blue divide. It’s the lowest number of split Senate delegations in more than a century. Of those six states (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maine, West Virginia, Ohio and Montana), none have a pair of senators as far apart politically as Johnson and Baldwin. That makes these two the oddest “odd couple” in the Senate. They are not only an outlier in the current day, however. They’re an outlier across decades of American politics. In the modern history of the Senate, it is exceedingly rare for one of the chamber’s most liberal members and one of its most conservative members to represent the same state at the same time. According to one rating system widely used by political scientists, Johnson and Baldwin are the most dissimilar pair of same-state senators of the past two decades. And it's hard to find true analogs in the decades before that. Next year’s Senate election in Wisconsin — and Johnson’s decision about whether to run again in 2022 — will determine whether this unlikely pairing endures much longer. But it has already lasted almost a decade, made possible by Wisconsin’s partisan parity and political swings, the effectiveness of the individual campaigns that Johnson and Baldwin have waged, the favorable political cycles they have run in, and a bit of happenstance. Before exploring those factors, let’s take a closer look at the history of Senate odd couples and what makes this one so exceptional. Forty years ago, there were 25 states with split Senate delegations. Thirty years ago, there were 21 such states. Twenty years ago, there were 14. Ten years ago, there were 17. Four years ago, there were 13. Two years ago, there were 9. Now there are six, the fewest number since 1914, the first year all senators were elected by popular vote. The five other Senate pairs on this list are Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio; Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia; Independent Angus King (who caucuses with Democrats) and Republican Susan Collins of Maine; Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; and Democrat Jon Tester and Republican Steve Daines of Montana. These odd couples don’t all fit the same mold. Two of these states are extremely balanced politically: Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Two are somewhat competitive but advantage one party: Ohio and Maine. And two are lopsidedly Republican: Montana and West Virginia. The other 44 states all have two senators from the same party that carried each of those states in the 2020 presidential election. This prevailing pattern reflects how state elections have become more and more nationalized along partisan lines. • • All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com • Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p... • • #senate #newsreporter #newstodaybbc #newstodayabc #newstodaymsnbc #newsworldnow #
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