Updated

Updated · CNN International · Nov 9

Mixed-Party Senate Delegations Jump to at Least 10 as Kansas Elects 1st Democrat in 94 Years

Updated

Updated · CNN International · Nov 9

Mixed-Party Senate Delegations Jump to at Least 10 as Kansas Elects 1st Democrat in 94 Years

Q: How did cost-of-living concerns help shatter a 94-year-old voting streak in the recent midterm elections?

Cost-of-living anxiety helped break the streak by persuading a slice of moderate Republican and independent voters in Kansas to cross over for Democrat Adam Hamilton. Reporting on the race shows Hamilton’s campaign centered on rising everyday expenses — groceries, fuel, health care and other household bills — at a time when many Kansans felt their finances were getting worse. Voters interviewed after the election described higher grocery totals, more expensive gasoline and trouble paying for medicine, frustrations that made them more open to change even in a state with a long Republican federal tradition. Hamilton tied those pressures to a broader message that Washington was not delivering for ordinary people. He appealed to voters who were unhappy with the economy and wanted a less combative, more pragmatic approach. His emphasis on working across the aisle and being an “independent-minded Democrat” made that economic message more acceptable to center-right voters who may not normally support a Democrat. That combination mattered in a state where ticket-splitting still exists beneath the Republican label. Kansas has a history of electing moderates at the state level, and Hamilton appears to have tapped into that tradition. According to campaign reporting, he won over moderate Republicans and independents frustrated by affordability problems and dissatisfaction with the national economic climate, helping end a 94-year Democratic losing streak in Kansas Senate races.

3 articles · Updated · CNN International · Nov 9

At least 10 states will have split Senate delegations in January, up from just four before the midterms; the total could reach 12 if Democrats win unresolved races in Mississippi and Alaska.
That surge reverses a long polarization trend on Capitol Hill and moves the Senate map back toward a historical norm after the fewest split delegations since senators began being elected nationwide in 1914.
Kansas drove the shift by electing Democrat Adam Hamilton, ending a 94-year drought and making him only the fourth Democrat ever sent by the state to the Senate.
Texas and Mississippi also showed openings in long-red terrain, while Maine and Vermont will count as split delegations because independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders caucus with Democrats.
The result underscores a more elastic political map: some Plains states stayed solidly Republican, but voters again proved willing to divide state and federal representation.