Midterm Results and 2008

Adam T over at MyDD has compiled the raw totals for all the House races during the 2006 midterm elections. Here are the national results.

Total vote: 80,121,069
Democratic: 42,339,571 52.8% 420 candidates
Republican: 35,938,282 44.9% 391 candidates
Other…..: 1,843,266 2.3%

I decided to take a look at each state to see which party got more votes. I then plugged the winning party in the Electoral College calculator to see who would have won the Presidency if each state had voted the same way for the President as they did cumulatively for their representatives. Here is what I discovered. The Dems would have won the Electoral College 321-217.

These results are skewed by some anomalies. For example, the Dems easily won single races in South and North Dakota, while the Republicans took a single seat in Delaware. But some other results were surprising. For example, the Republicans comfortably won in Wisconsin, while the Dems took North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Colorado. Indiana and Kentucky remained Republican, but by under a single percentage point. Perhaps the most significant finding was that the Dems took Ohio by a 52.6%-47.2% margin.

The Democratic nominee in 2008 should remember the states where Dems pulled a majority of votes in 2006 and they should campaign in them. It would be a mistake to look at the results of 2000 and 2004 and think that these red states are unwinnable.

6 Comments

Dean Pajevic on January 13, 2007 at 7:12 pm

Washington: 2,054,056
Democratic: 1,244,095 60.6%
Republican: 798,005 38.9%

We had two competitive races, and lost both. We didn’t pick up a single House seat. That shouldn’t have happened. I’m not intimate enough with the races to know why for certain. But I know that Peter Goldmark, a superb challenger in the 5th district could have done a lot better had he had some more money.

::::::

Da Bears. Are on my mind.

I came here expecting to find a damn football thread. What’s goin’ on?!

Iowa Victory Gardener on January 14, 2007 at 3:03 am

What you point out does seem rather anomalous to me, but there were some strange things that happened in districts all over in 2006, I think. Here, for example, Jim Leach (a truly “moderate” Repub in office for 30 yrs, and actually not a bad guy at all) lost his seat to “dirty hippie” professor from my undergrad alma mater… that was the big shocker for me around these parts!

Hope to see more from you soon, Susan. You’ve been missed.

idredit on January 13, 2007 at 7:23 pm

“It would be a mistake to look at the results of 2000 and 2004 and think that these red states are unwinnable.”

After reading a quote from Rod Dreher’s confessional on NPR, I’m optimistic those red states will be more than lilac. In fact in ’08, down right blue.
Glenn Greewald took note:

GG: “In particular, Dreher recounts how much, during the 1980s, he “disliked hippies – the blame America first liberals who were so hung up on Vietnam, who surrendered to Communists back then just like they want to do now.” In short, Republicans were “winners.” Democrats were “defeatists.”

On 9/11, Dreher’s first thought was : “Thank God we have a Republican in the White House.”

The rest of his essay: “Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation this”?

“As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool’s errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic.

But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool.

In Iraq, this Republican President for whom I voted twice has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did.

The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government’s conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Not under a Republican President.

I turn 40 next month — middle aged at last — a time of discovering limits, finitude. I expected that. But what I did not expect was to see the limits of finitude of American power revealed so painfully.

I did not expect Vietnam.

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative – that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word – that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot – that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Will my children, too small now to understand Iraq, take me seriously when I tell them one day what powerful men, whom their father once believed in, did to this country? Heavy thoughts for someone who is still a conservative despite it all. It was a long drive home.”

GG: “Dreher’s essay is extreme and intense but also increasingly commonplace and illustrative. The disaster of unparalleled magnitude that President Bush and his integrity-free and bloodthirsty administration and followers wrought on this country will have a profound impact not only on American strength and credibility for a long, long time to come, but also on the views of Americans towards their political leaders and, almost certainly, towards the Republican Party.”

Iowa Victory Gardener on January 14, 2007 at 3:06 am

I hope this continues to become a dominant narrative from now on … wool, leave eyes, eyes see clearer … regional party slinks to an inconsequential corner of history… A guy can dream, can’t he?

Note to self: need to read Greenwald more often!

coach215 on January 14, 2007 at 7:57 am

I have seen the Republicans in Indiana in 1980 organize the whole state based on the congressional slate. I think that is a good model for a state that is ready to “turn” as IN was in 1980, when we flipped Dem to Repub in the congressional delegation and lost Birch Bayh as the senator and John Brademas as the Majority Whip.

refinish69 on January 14, 2007 at 9:17 am

“The Democratic nominee in 2008 should remember the states where Dems pulled a majority of votes in 2006 and they should campaign in them. It would be a mistake to look at the results of 2000 and 2004 and think that these red states are unwinnable.”

No candidate should ignore any district or state!!! There are persuadables & undecided in every area. There are also lots of pissed off people nationwide who will vote differently than they ever have before in their lives. This bodes well not only for the presidential candidate but all others running.

Dean Pajevic on January 13, 2007 at 7:12 pm

Washington: 2,054,056
Democratic: 1,244,095 60.6%
Republican: 798,005 38.9%

We had two competitive races, and lost both. We didn’t pick up a single House seat. That shouldn’t have happened. I’m not intimate enough with the races to know why for certain. But I know that Peter Goldmark, a superb challenger in the 5th district could have done a lot better had he had some more money.

::::::

Da Bears. Are on my mind.

I came here expecting to find a damn football thread. What’s goin’ on?!
- Iowa Victory Gardener on January 14, 2007 at 3:03 am
  
  What you point out does seem rather anomalous to me, but there were some strange things that happened in districts all over in 2006, I think. Here, for example, Jim Leach (a truly “moderate” Repub in office for 30 yrs, and actually not a bad guy at all) lost his seat to “dirty hippie” professor from my undergrad alma mater… that was the big shocker for me around these parts!
  
  Hope to see more from you soon, Susan. You’ve been missed.
idredit on January 13, 2007 at 7:23 pm

“It would be a mistake to look at the results of 2000 and 2004 and think that these red states are unwinnable.”

After reading a quote from Rod Dreher’s confessional on NPR, I’m optimistic those red states will be more than lilac. In fact in ’08, down right blue.
Glenn Greewald took note:

GG: “In particular, Dreher recounts how much, during the 1980s, he “disliked hippies – the blame America first liberals who were so hung up on Vietnam, who surrendered to Communists back then just like they want to do now.” In short, Republicans were “winners.” Democrats were “defeatists.”

On 9/11, Dreher’s first thought was : “Thank God we have a Republican in the White House.”

The rest of his essay: “Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation this”?

“As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool’s errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic.

But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool.

In Iraq, this Republican President for whom I voted twice has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did.

The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government’s conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Not under a Republican President.

I turn 40 next month — middle aged at last — a time of discovering limits, finitude. I expected that. But what I did not expect was to see the limits of finitude of American power revealed so painfully.

I did not expect Vietnam.

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative – that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word – that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot – that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Will my children, too small now to understand Iraq, take me seriously when I tell them one day what powerful men, whom their father once believed in, did to this country? Heavy thoughts for someone who is still a conservative despite it all. It was a long drive home.”

GG: “Dreher’s essay is extreme and intense but also increasingly commonplace and illustrative. The disaster of unparalleled magnitude that President Bush and his integrity-free and bloodthirsty administration and followers wrought on this country will have a profound impact not only on American strength and credibility for a long, long time to come, but also on the views of Americans towards their political leaders and, almost certainly, towards the Republican Party.”
- Iowa Victory Gardener on January 14, 2007 at 3:06 am
  
  I hope this continues to become a dominant narrative from now on … wool, leave eyes, eyes see clearer … regional party slinks to an inconsequential corner of history… A guy can dream, can’t he?
  
  Note to self: need to read Greenwald more often!
coach215 on January 14, 2007 at 7:57 am

I have seen the Republicans in Indiana in 1980 organize the whole state based on the congressional slate. I think that is a good model for a state that is ready to “turn” as IN was in 1980, when we flipped Dem to Repub in the congressional delegation and lost Birch Bayh as the senator and John Brademas as the Majority Whip.
refinish69 on January 14, 2007 at 9:17 am

“The Democratic nominee in 2008 should remember the states where Dems pulled a majority of votes in 2006 and they should campaign in them. It would be a mistake to look at the results of 2000 and 2004 and think that these red states are unwinnable.”

No candidate should ignore any district or state!!! There are persuadables & undecided in every area. There are also lots of pissed off people nationwide who will vote differently than they ever have before in their lives. This bodes well not only for the presidential candidate but all others running.

Midterm Results and 2008

About The Author

BooMan

6 Comments

Recent Posts

Recent Comments