The Fix: Exit Polls: Democrats could not escape Obamas unpopularity
Why did so many Democrats lose on Tuesday? Here's the simplest answer: President Obama was a political dead weight for his party.
No Democratic Senate candidate performed more than nine percentage points better than Obamas approval rating in their states exit poll. This outlier over-performance was barely good enough for Sens. Mark Warner to pull off reelection in Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. (No one thought Warner was in any danger in Virginia. No one.) Notably, both of these candidates are personally popular and serve in states that are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. They also each spent time as governor before being elected to the Senate.
Outperforming Obama by eightpoints was not nearly enough for Mark Pryor in Arkansas, who earned just 39 percent support. Democratic candidates in Iowa and Kentucky outperformed Obamas approval rating by five and sixpoints, only to win 44 and 41 percent support in their respective elections. In Colorado and Georgia, support for Democrats Mark Udall and Michelle Nunn only exceeded Obamas approval rating by twopoints,leaving them at 45 percent.
In the four stateswhere Obama held at least 47 percentapproval Maine, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota Democrats won three of four Senate races. In Maine, popular Republican incumbentSusan Collins won easily in a race Democrats were less focused on.
The anchor of a presidents approval rating is far from new presidential job approval has played a big part in predictive models for midterm elections. Indeed, Real Clear Politics analyst Sean Trende performed this very analysis on 2010 and 2012 Senate contests in January. He wrote:
In the 31 competitive Senate races held in 2010 and 2012, the Democratic candidate has run within five points of the presidents job approval in 23 of them (75 percent). Additionally, no Democratic candidate in a competitive race has run more than 10 points ahead of the presidents job approval (or behind it).
Its possible Obama himself is not the anchor, but his approval is more of an indicator of a states basic partisan instincts. But years of midterm election losses have shown that the president's party, and his popularity, are deeply important indicators of chances in midterm elections. This year, the weight of Obamas standing proved too much for many Democrats.
Republicans won big on Tuesday night as much as by who actually voted as who didn't. Here are the takeaways from the exit poll data. (Pamela Kirkland/The Washington Post)
Scott Clement is a survey research analyst for The Washington Post. Scott specializes in public opinion about politics, election campaigns and public policy.
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The Fix: Exit Polls: Democrats could not escape Obamas unpopularity