The trend has been clear throughout
the Obama presidency, but the Republican Party’s increasing dominance of
American politics, up and down the ballot, is demonstrated clearly in a single
map.

The map above created by the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) shows the dominant party in each state’s congressional
delegation. The GOP edge? 38-12.

Consider this: You could take a
road trip starting in Jacksonville, Fla., north to Richmond, Va., then west,
zig-zagging along the Mason-Dixon Line on
your way out to Las Vegas – about 3,000 miles total, about a dozen states – and never pass through a Blue
State.

Chris Cillizza of The Washington
Post points out that the mismatch between Red and Blue is even more pronounced
in so-called down-ballot offices, which means the GOP has a much stronger “farm team” to keep their momentum going for many years:

“The cliché about Democrats being
the coastal party and Republicans being the party of the interior of the
country is borne out by this (FEC) map. Outside of a pocket of liberalism in
Minnesota (a long time progressive stronghold) and Illinois (a rare state where
labor remains tremendously powerful), the middle of the country is entirely
dominated by Republicans.
“The South is now solidly Republican, a transformation
that began in the 1994 election. And the mountain West, where Democrats
insisted they were growing in the mid-2000s, now largely looks like a lost
cause with the exception of New Mexico, a state whose politics are heavily
influenced by its large Latino population.

“The map also reinforces a point I
have made in this space plenty of late: Outside of the presidency, the Republican
Party is far healthier than the Democratic Party. Senate control. The
largest House majority since World War II. Thirty-two governorships (if they
hold Louisiana on Saturday). Total control of 30 of the country’s 50 state
legislatures.

“Republicans would likely trade
some of that down-ballot dominance for the White House in 2016. But, if you
happen to be living on the coasts and think Democrats are the ascendant party,
this map should correct that misperception. We live in what amounts to two
totally different Americas — countries within a country that rarely brush up
against one another, figuratively or literally.”

 

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