Thursday, January 30, 2014

More States Are Quietly Becoming Republican

A Gallup Poll in late January showed that more and more states are becoming Republican. - Bruce Walker/American Thinker

The strength in state legislatures allowed Democrats to draw Republican voters into electoral ghettos which made it much easier for Democrats to hold the House. That has been reversed. Republican gains in the last twenty years in state legislatures means that the number of congressional districts drawn by Republicans has grown dramatically -- from 5 districts in 1991 to 98 districts in 2001, and now 193 districts in 2011 -- while the number of districts drawn by Democrats have shrunk, from 172 districts in 1991 to 135 districts in 2011 to only 44 districts today.

This means that the bedrock of political power in America (winning elections in Congress and state governments) is moving steadily to the Republican Party. As more states become Republican, a natural advantage in winning Senate elections will grow, and as and more and more legislative districts are controlled by Republicans, electoral districts for members of the House of Representatives and state legislatures are being drawn by Republicans.

In 2009, pundits wondered if the Republican Party would survive, but it is the Party of Obama that looks more and more like the real political dinosaur in America. If the Party of Obama is routed in 2014 and not only is the Senate lost, but more state legislative chambers and House districts are won by Republicans, the sea change that many of us have hoped for may be at last have arrived.