Quote Originally Posted by Romanis View Post
No I think you're confused about the roles of both Houses and the way they're elected.
To simplify I'll explain this way. Every state is entitled to 2 US Senators - making 100. They're elected on 6 year cycles, Class A B and C. Every 2 years a third of the Senate is up for election.

The House comprises 435 members. They're elected every 2 years. Elections is based on representation. It was around 33000 voters per rep initially but I expect it's higher now. So for certain states like Wyoming maybe Iowa there might only be 1 rep for the whole state based on population while a more populous one like New York has 39 reps. California obviously has the most - well over 50. So Wyoming will have just 1 rep but as a state they have 2 Senators like all others. Whereas California may have 52 reps but still only are entitled to 2 US Senators.

Now to your point as to why the voters split power either way, well this is obviously due to the way the representation is divided. In big cities, it tends to go Democratic but in rural areas it's almost always GOP (Republican). So while a Democrat may garner seats in a GOP leaning state like Oregon with Portland a major city, the state by itself remains largely GOP because of the rural areas. They employ the first past the post system in most races, although some have runoffs. So that's why you have Republicans retaining control of the Senate. They may lose the cities but as long as there are enough votes in rural in suburban states they're safe. Georgia is a classic example. Atlanta is almost certainly Democratic but the rest of the state is all 'red.' So a Democrat winning Georgia is a tall order like Tennessee, despite Taylor Swift's endorsement, was unable to bring the win home.

But the point to note is that the Dems did quite well in these states. Tennessee, Georgia and Texas are all 'red' states but the Dems closed the gap significantly. Another key I must add why the Dems failed to make headway in the Senate, if you go back to what I wrote earlier, the 1/3 of the Senate being up for election. This cycle significantly favoured the GOP. Of the 33-34 seats up for grabs most were Republican states, or where Trump carried. Heitkamp, McCatskill and Donelly all lost in states that Trump won. Thus far the only gain was in Arizona, where Jeff Flake retired and the Dems defeated his replacement. However in 2020, the cycle will favour the Dems as they are defending states Hillary carried and traditionally blue. However it also being a Presidential election year, may affect their chances, if Trump wins re-election.
Correction, the gain was in Nevada not Arizona. In Arizona, the Republican is leading narrowly.