incumbency in congress 2.2

Question 1

what is the average incumbency rate for congress in 2024

Answer 1

HOUSE = 96.6%
SENATE = 88%

Question 2

what are 4 factors for why the incumbency rate for congressional elections is so high

Answer 2

• use of office
• safe seats and gerrymandering
• pork-barrel legislation
• financial advantage

Question 3

how has ‘use of office’ affected the incumbency rate

Answer 3

• Establishing popularity can attract major donors.
• A proven track record inspires trust among voters and donors.

Question 4

how has ‘safe seats and gerrymandering’ affected the incumbency rate

Answer 4

• winner takes all system allows enormous amounts of safe seats
• GERRYMANDERING = lets dominant party create electoral boundaries to favour a certain social group or party.

Question 5

how has ‘pork-barrel legislation’ affected the incumbency rate

Answer 5

• Congress add amendments (earmarks) to legislation that direct financial benefits to their constituencies
• others criticise it as wasteful spending that contributes to the budget deficit
• (2016 Congress approved $475 million for an unwanted navy ship to benefit districts with shipbuilding industries.)

Question 6

how has ‘financial legislation’ affected the incumbency rate

Answer 6

• Incumbents can attract more money than challengers, allowing them to run more successful campaigns.
• Challengers can struggle to gain name recognition

Question 7

what is the coattails effect

Answer 7

popular presidential candidate or political party leader being able to attract votes for other candidates in his or her party

Question 8

what is split ticket voting

Answer 8

a voter in an election votes for candidates from different political parties

Question 9

straight ticket voting

Answer 9

practice of voters assigning all their votes to the candidates of one political party in an election.

Question 10

what has happened to split ticket voting

Answer 10

• declined massively
• more paritsanship and polarisation means people are more tirbal than usual

Question 11

what is the composition of the house (19/03/2025)

Answer 11

• 218 republican
• 213 democratic
• 4 vacant

Question 12

what is the composition of the senate (19/03/2025)

Answer 12

• 53 republicans
• 45 democratic
• 2 independent

Question 13

what has happened to competitive congressional disctricts

Answer 13

• decreased as more likely to extremely partisan
• Competitive district congresspeople will have to concentrate more on constituent’s views = work twice as hard
• third parties have literally no chance of getting into congress

Question 14

what are competitive congressional districts

Answer 14

like a swing state but for a congressional district = where there isn’t an evident party in power within a district at time of the election