So, I've witnessed a few occasions of wingnuts who have been arguing that the election wasn't that big a deal because of the small victory margins for the crucial Democratic victories in both the House and the Senate.
Short answer to that: What a bunch of Baloney!
Long Half Answer to that: The Senate elections of 2006 was a Landslide of Historic Proportions.
The Democrats (including the I's who will caucus as Dems) won 24 of 33 races (73%). Even more amazing, the Democrats won 6 of the 15 available pickup opportunities. Simply amazing!
How did that happen? 7.2 Million who voted for Bush in 2004 voted for a Democrat for Senate in 2006.
See the full landslide numbers below the flip.
Looking at the 30 states (excluding CT, IN, VT) where a Dem and Rep went head to head for Senate, the % of Voters who chose Kerry in 2004 of
50.12% turned into a whopping
56.76% who chose a Dem Senator in 2006. Votes for Bush of
49.88% turned into
43.24% for a Rep Senator,
an increased differential of 13.5% in favor of Dems in 2006 from just 0.2% in favor of Dems in 2004, all in just 2 years!
This was a landslide, folks.
Raw numbers below:
From CNN:
2006 Senate Results
06 Dem Sen State 06 Rep Sen State
506759 Arizona 607778 Arizona
4010230 California 2342279 California
170544 Delaware 69732 Delaware
2845111 Florida 1797709 Florida
197731 Hawaii 118867 Hawaii
108857 Maine 393434 Maine
847238 Maryland 683187 Maryland
1497304 Massachussetts 658374 Massachussetts
2148637 Michigan 1559761 Michigan
1279515 Minnesota 839713 Minnesota
205518 Mississippi 375307 Mississippi
1028920 Missouri 987383 Missouri
198302 Montana 195455 Montana
371777 Nebraska 211111 Nebraska
237875 Nevada 321186 Nevada
1162054 New Jersey 975389 New Jersey
382568 New Mexico 159882 New Mexico
2816714 New York 1328423 New York
149317 North Dakota 64133 North Dakota
2133690 Ohio 1680999 Ohio
2342315 Pennsylvania 1651549 Pennsylvania
205274 Rhode Island 178548 Rhode Island
877716 Tennessee 927343 Tennessee
1554305 Texas 2659253 Texas
169369 Utah 344416 Utah
1172541 Virginia 1165324 Virginia
682520 Washington 471094 Washington
291058 West Virginia 152315 West Virginia
1436623 Wisconsin 629127 Wisconsin
57640 Wyoming 134942 Wyoming
Total Dem or Rep Votes 54772035
Dem Total: 31088022 Rep Total: 23684013 Diff: 7404009
Dem Total %: 56.75893182 Rep Total %: 43.24106818 Diff %: 13.51786363
From CNN:
2004 President Results
Kerry State Bush State
893524 Arizona 1104294 Arizona
6745485 California 5509826 California
200152 Delaware 171660 Delaware
3583544 Florida 3964522 Florida
231708 Hawaii 194191 Hawaii
396842 Maine 330201 Maine
1334493 Maryland 1024703 Maryland
1803800 Massachussetts 1071109 Massachussetts
2479183 Michigan 2313746 Michigan
1445014 Minnesota 1346695 Minnesota
457766 Mississippi 684981 Mississippi
1259171 Missouri 1455713 Missouri
173710 Montana 266063 Montana
254328 Nebraska 512814 Nebraska
397190 Nevada 418690 Nevada
1911430 New Jersey 1670003 New Jersey
370942 New Mexico 376930 New Mexico
4314280 New York 2962567 New York
111052 North Dakota 196651 North Dakota
2741165 Ohio 2859764 Ohio
2938095 Pennsylvania 2793847 Pennsylvania
259760 Rhode Island 169046 Rhode Island
1036477 Tennessee 1384375 Tennessee
2832704 Texas 4526917 Texas
241199 Utah 663742 Utah
1454742 Virginia 1716959 Virginia
1510201 Washington 1304894 Washington
326541 West Virginia 423778 West Virginia
1489504 Wisconsin 1478120 Wisconsin
70776 Wyoming 167629 Wyoming
Total Kerry and Bush Votes 86329208
Kerry Total: 43264778 Bush Total: 43064430 Diff: 200348
Kerry Total %: 50.1160372 Bush Total %: 49.8839628 Diff %: 0.23207441