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  • How Has The US Senate Managed To Stay Competitive?

    How Has The US Senate Managed To Stay Competitive?

    The 2024 Senate map is conventionally challenging for Democrats. Republicans need just two seats to flip the chamber, while Democrats must defend 23. Eight of the states that they are defending were more Republican than the nation in 2020 and three (Montana, West Virginia, and Ohio) backed President Trump twice while voting more than ten… Read more

  • Beshear Today, Gone Tomorrow? Kentucky Governor’s Race is a Tossup.

    Beshear Today, Gone Tomorrow? Kentucky Governor’s Race is a Tossup.

    The 2022 midterms are barely behind us and attention of political media has already turned to 2024. However, before a Republican presidential hopeful so much as whiffs their first steak-on-a-stick at the Iowa State Fair, one overlooked contest may have a lot more to tell us about the nation’s political climate. While 2021 had its… Read more

  • World Report: Berlin’s Repeat State Elections

    World Report: Berlin’s Repeat State Elections

    Introduction Last month Split Ticket examined recent electoral and political developments in Brazil and Peru, bringing back World Report for the 2023 cycle. This edition of the series will review the results of the January presidential runoff in the Czech Republic while previewing today’s redo state elections in Berlin. Czech Republic – January 27th and… Read more

  • Which Key Race Outcomes Might Libertarians Have Changed?

    Which Key Race Outcomes Might Libertarians Have Changed?

    Introduction Much important American electoral discourse revolves around spoiler candidates. In other words, minor contenders (typically representing third parties) who win just enough votes to be accused of preventing major-party candidates from securing majorities in tight races.  The use of first-past-the-post voting in most U.S. states makes it easier for observers to blame “spoilers” because… Read more

  • Election Review: New Jersey’s 7th district

    Election Review: New Jersey’s 7th district

    Introduction Welcome to the second edition of Election Review, Split Ticket’s new ex post facto House analysis series. Following last week’s Ohio breakdown, today’s installment takes us east to New Jersey. We visualized the 7th district House election results using a number of maps and data tables, allowing us to quantitatively evaluate the impact of… Read more

  • Did Refusing The COVID-19 Vaccine Cost The GOP Any Elections?

    Did Refusing The COVID-19 Vaccine Cost The GOP Any Elections?

    Vaccination has historically not been something that diverges along partisan lines in the United States. Until recently, both parties showed roughly equal rates of vaccine enthusiasm and skepticism alike, and Donald Trump’s administration was actually the one that launched Operation Warp Speed, which led to the rapid development of the extremely effective mRNA vaccines that… Read more

  • Election Review: Ohio

    Election Review: Ohio

    Introduction With 2022 in the rearview mirror, we at Split Ticket decided to start a new series called Election Review devoted to analyzing significant House races on a state by state basis. In addition to our previous Against The Trend publications, which focused on crossover voting driven by down-ballot lag, Election Review will utilize our… Read more

  • Looking Back at Utah’s 2022 Senate Race

    Looking Back at Utah’s 2022 Senate Race

    One of the most surprising results of the 2022 midterms was the relatively close Utah Senate race. The ruby-red state posted a 10.4-point win for incumbent GOP Sen. Mike Lee over conservative independent Evan McMullin — a remarkable underperformance by Lee. By comparison, the comparatively more competitive state of Florida voted for Sen. Marco Rubio,… Read more

  • Our 2022 Senate Wins Above Replacement Model

    Our 2022 Senate Wins Above Replacement Model

    Editor’s Note: In December 2024, the Split Ticket WAR model received a major methodological upgrade that resulted in WAR score changes. The findings remain directionally the same, but the updated WAR scores are found here. During the course of our 2022 postmortems, we at Split Ticket have already quantified the importance of candidate quality in the… Read more

  • Electability, Ideology, and the 2022 Midterms

    Electability, Ideology, and the 2022 Midterms

    At Split Ticket, we have repeatedly proven that candidate-driven effects fundamentally impact election results, but we have not completely addressed a more controversial question: do ideologically-extreme candidates pay electoral penalties? Previous analysis on the correlation between moderation and overperformance suggests that they do. But it’s worth looking at how this holds up in 2022. Note:… Read more

  • World Report: Brazil and Peru

    World Report: Brazil and Peru

    Introduction The 2022 midterms may be over, but Split Ticket’s foreign coverage continues. Today’s publication is the first of a two-part World Report release breaking down both the biggest global developments since our previous installment and 2023’s important electoral contests. What’d We Miss? Brazil If political squabbling doesn’t seem tumultuous enough in the United States,… Read more

  • Introducing Split Ticket’s Congressional Voting Index (CVI)

    Introducing Split Ticket’s Congressional Voting Index (CVI)

    INTRODUCTION Split Ticket’s new Congressional Voting Index (CVI) gauges each House district’s partisan lean. In contrast to counterparts like Cook PVI, our CVI uses a unique methodology that makes it more representative of the current electoral climate. This tool will improve our 2024 House ratings by shedding light on how seats may be expected to… Read more