Ron Brownstein: “It’s too early to confidently predict which party will hold the U.S. Senate after the November election. But it’s a safe bet the next Senate will more closely reflect the nation’s entrenched red-blue presidential divide. And that’s a recipe for even more polarization and gridlock.”
“This year’s races will likely provide more evidence of voters’ growing inclination to support Senate candidates from the same party as that of their presidential choice. This has made it much tougher than a generation ago for either party to elect senators from states that typically back the other side in presidential elections.”
“The tightening correlation between presidential and Senate voting represents a back-to-the-future trend in national politics. Through the first half of the 20th century, party-line voting was common. After Franklin Roosevelt’s first two victories in 1932 and 1936, for instance, Democrats held 89 percent of the Senate seats in the 40 states that supported him both times.”
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