The last time Democrats performed this poorly in gubernatorial races, World War I hadn't happened yet
President Obama won clear victories in 2008 and 2012, but at the state level, Democrats are having much greater difficulty capturing top executive office.
There are only 18 Democratic governors nationwide right now, and since 2010 Democrats have won a lower proportion — 37 percent — of gubernatorial races than in any decade since the first 10 years of the 20th century. Though seven of 12 decades since 1900 saw Democrats prevailing in a majority of gubernatorial races, Republicans have made serious gains since 1990.
Republicans also have an edge in congressional races, but at the mayoral level, intriguingly, the GOP cedes its advantage to Democrats, especially in major cities.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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