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Democrats in Split-Outcome Districts and the 2010 Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

Jeffrey M. Stonecash
Jeffrey M. Stonecash
Affiliation:
Maxwell School, Syracuse University
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Extract

The 2008 congressional elections produced a House in which 84 members came from split-outcome districts. Forty-nine Democrats won in districts that Barack Obama lost, and 35 Republicans won in districts that Obama won. To protect their majority, the Democrats needed to retain these 49 members. Given the party's 257 seats, these split members constituted the difference between being in the majority and the minority. The 49 Democrats faced the dilemma of whether to vote with their party, given that their district voted for the presidential candidate of the other party. The focus here is on these split Democrats: their electoral situation, their votes, and their fate in 2010.

Type
Symposium
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 321 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

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