U.S. Senate
By Eric Ostermeier on July 12, 2010
National League victory has preceded each of the nine election cycles with double-digit GOP gains in U.S. House since 1950
By Eric Ostermeier on June 9, 2010
Conlin is only the second female major party candidate to appear on a U.S. Senate general election ballot in Iowa and the 9th woman overall
By Eric Ostermeier on May 24, 2010
Only six men have been elected to a first term in the U.S. Senate without major party backing since popular vote elections in 1914
By Eric Ostermeier on April 22, 2010
No non-incumbent has won a U.S. Senate seat by announcing their candidacy this late in the election cycle; the average length of successful U.S. Senate campaigns since 2000 has been 447 days
By Eric Ostermeier on April 15, 2010
The South Dakota Democratic Party's plunge from 49 percent of the vote in 2004 to falling off the ballot in 2010 is the greatest in the nation since the end of WWII
By Eric Ostermeier on April 9, 2010
Women are still proportionally underrepresented in 48 states, with 19 states and 22 percent of the nation's population without a female U.S. Senator or Representative
By Eric Ostermeier on February 21, 2010
Gopher State delegation currently has second lowest collective seniority in the U.S. Senate
By Eric Ostermeier on February 17, 2010
Bayh is only elected Democrat from Indiana since popular vote elections to exit the U.S. Senate for reasons other than defeat at the ballot box or death
By Eric Ostermeier on February 8, 2010
Average 'red state' primary date is June 15th, while average 'blue state' date is July 23rd. 'Purple state' average date is July 11th
By Eric Ostermeier on January 19, 2010
Only West Virginia and Hawaii have gone more years without electing a Republican to a U.S. Senate seat
By Eric Ostermeier on January 18, 2010
More than half of U.S. Senate special elections since 1970 have resulted in a partisan flipping of voter preferences
By Eric Ostermeier on November 15, 2009
Scenario could also be best chance for 3rd party revival in Gopher State
By Eric Ostermeier on October 4, 2009
Klobuchar and Franken are enjoying their highest approval ratings since being elected in 2006 and 2008 respectively
By Eric Ostermeier on September 14, 2009
Out of the 32 elections in which each of Minnesota's U.S. Representatives have appeared on the general election ballot, incumbents swept their contests in just 19 instances, or 59 percent of the time
By Eric Ostermeier on September 4, 2009
The latest round of SurveyUSA polling finds Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar rebounding back into familiar territory, while many of her Upper Midwestern colleagues see their job performance marks sink to record lows and struggle to reach even a positive net approval rating. Minnesotans give Senator Klobuchar a 58 percent...
By Eric Ostermeier on August 16, 2009
As DFL Senator Al Franken inched into office by the narrowest of margins, both he and 2008 Republican opponent Norm Coleman endured negative net favorability ratings as their expensive, and frequently brutal campaigns gained neither candidate favor with a majority of Minnesotans. A few weeks out from Election Day saw...
By Eric Ostermeier on August 11, 2009
Last week's vote in the U.S. Senate confirming Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court was noteworthy foremost, of course, for Sotomayor being the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the Court. But the Senate vote was also significant for the Republicans and what emerged...
By Eric Ostermeier on August 9, 2009
As unemployment continued to rise and economic and budget concerns reached near crisis levels across most states, several U.S. Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, saw their approval ratings slip noticeably during the first several months of 2009. One of the few Senators left seemingly unscathed by this backlash of public...
By Eric Ostermeier on August 6, 2009
In the months after President Barack Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, political analysts and even a few Republicans (e.g. Joe Scarborough) have characterized GOP opposition to and harsh questioning of the new Associate Justice as politically unwise. Such Republican Senators were cautioned and urged to...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 9, 2009
Two leaders from the State Capitol will be speaking at a forum hosted by the Humphrey Institute on Friday morning to pinpoint reforms that could be made in the Minnesota election system to avoid recount pitfalls in the future. DFL Senator Ann Rest (Chair of the Senate State and Local...
