In today’s Alabama US Senate election, Democrat Doug Jones isn’t running just against Republican Roy Moore. Jones is also running against the most powerful trend shaping modern elections for the US Senate.
That trend is a tightening correlation between the way states vote for President and how they vote for Senate. Compared to earlier generations, it has become extremely rare for either party to win Senate races behind enemy lines — in states that usually back the other side in presidential elections. …
Fueling the shift is a growing tendency among voters to see Senate — and House — elections less as a choice between individuals than as a quasi-parliamentary referendum on which party they believe should control the majority in Washington. As I’ve written before, in modern congressional elections, the color on the front of the jersey increasingly matters more than the name on the back. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN