3.

Congressional Elections

congressional
elections
Key terminology:
Primary election - a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their
party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local
election, or by-election

Incumbent - The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation
to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in
the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-election or not.

Coattails effect - coattail effect or down-ballot effect is the tendency for a popular political
party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election.

The folks back home - people that each congress(wo)man are representing

● The Senate was not directly elected until 1913 (17th amendment)
● House = 25 years old, citizen for 7 years, resident of the state or district they
represent (some states operate the locality rule)
● Senate = 30 years old, citizen for 9 years, resident of the state

The nomination process

➔ Win the nomination of one of the two major parties
➔ Often through a primary, the winner automatically becomes the candidate
➔ Primaries for incumbents are rare and defeat in a primary for an incumbent is very
rare (Ocasio-Cortez)

Trends in Congressional Elections

➔ The power of incumbency is significant
➔ The coattails effect is limited
◆ Popular democrat president won't necessarily mean that people always vote
democrat
◆ System is quite separate, unlike UK which is quite entangled
➔ Split-ticket voting is declining
➔ There are fewer competitive districts (one in fourteen)
➔ The president’s party tends to lose seats in the midterms

TASK:
read p.58-60 of the textbook
● Explain with facts and figures the advantages of incumbency
● What is pork barrel politics? Explain with examples
● What is gerrymandering and what are its implications?
● Research what happened in the Georgia Senate election Nov 2020 and Jan 2021
(that might be a clue!)

CASE STUDY: Cori Bush

● Failed in 2018
● Succeeded in 2020 in the 1st District Missouri
● Clay family
● Dad - 32 years

1
3. Congressional Elections

● Son - 20 years

Pork Barrel Politics

● a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localised projects
secured solely or primarily to direct spending to a representative's district.

Not in the UK because:

➔ MPs don't have that same amount of power
➔ More devolved power in the UK
➔ Congressman are on constant electoral cycle
➔ Doesn't happen in the same way as UK doesn't have the same type of system

CASE STUDY: The Bridge to Nowhere

● The project encountered fierce opposition outside Alaska as a symbol of pork barrel
spending and is labelled as one of the more prominent "bridges to nowhere". As a
result, Congress removed the federal earmark for the bridge in 2005.
● Would have cost $230 million to build

Joe Manchin
● West Virginian senator (democrat)
● Represents a Trump voting population
● More in common with the Republican party as the folks back home won't continue to
vote for him.

Kyrsten Senima
● Arizonan senator (democratic)
● Heavily a republican state