Democrats Lost Senate While Getting 10 Million More Votes

Washington Post: “As Europeans woke up to the results of the 2018 midterm elections on Wednesday, their primary question — what next for a president who is so deeply unpopular here? — remained largely unanswered.”

“But just like in the United States, European news networks still dedicated hours-long specials to the key vote. And while viewers here tried to make sense of the results, they repeatedly stumbled over two numbers: the total votes for Democratic and Republican Senate candidates. More than 44 million Americans voted for Democratic Senate candidates vs. about 33 million for Republican contenders.”

“As the animated TV graphics clearly showed, though, it was Republicans who ended the night in control of the Senate — not the Democrats.”

Aaron Blake: “But the Senate popular vote is a bogus stat for a whole host of reasons… The biggest problem with it is that not every state is up for reelection, leading to a skewed picture… The second reason is California. It has a unique system in which the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of party. This year, that was two Democrats. That means all 6 million votes counted (with many more to come) go to the Democrats.”