A thread about the Senate:

1. There have been multiple elections since 1940 (the earliest I could find national popular vote data for), where the party winning the most seats in a Senate cycle failed to win a plurality of the popular vote: 1940, 1956, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 2004, 2016, and 2018.

2. The 2016 and 2018 elections hold even when accounting for California's top-2 primary.

3. It is possible (though by no means certain), that the Democrats could win the most votes but the GOP maintain control of the Senate. This would be the second time a party has control of the Senate despite losing the popular vote in 3 straight Senate cycles.

3 (cont). The first took place in the 1980's, with the GOP controlling the Senate from 1983-1987 despite 3/4 straight cycles in which they failed to win more votes nationally than the Democrats.

4. In the period in question, 2 SCOTUS Justices were nominated and approved. Rehnquist was approved as Chief Justice (65-33), and Antonin Scalia as an Associate Justice (98-0).

5. My purpose in making this thread is not to argue whether the issue at play is primarily institutional, the result of inefficient political coalitions, or some combination thereof, merely to provide context given recent events and the upcoming elections.

6. If anyone has access to polling data comparing reactions to the 1980's GOP minority vote/majority seat hold compared to day, especially regarding views of the legitimacy of the Senate, that would be great item to compare (assuming such a thing exists).