(NewsNation) — This year’s midterm election has seen a rise in split-ticket voting, with voters electing state governors and senators with opposite parties.
For example, in Wisconsin, voters elected a Democratic governor and a Republican senator and, in New Hampshire, voters elected a Republican governor and a Democratic senator.
NewsNation’s Leland Vittert joined Morning in America, saying that political scientists and journalists have loved this concept for decades, and now, it is finally happening.
Vittert explained that it’s the idea that the candidate might matter more than the party they represent.
“In each one of these cases, it’s something different. The one theme that we see this being more consistent, where you see these big margins — New Hampshire, Ohio, Georgia — is where you’ve got a very Trumpy Senate candidate on the Senate side and a kind of traditional MAGA-agnostic, Republican governor on the governor side,” Vittert said. “That’s where we’re seeing the most pronounced ticket-splitting. And that speaks to exactly the issues that we’ve been talking about all along, which is, what type of conservatism are people willing to vote for.”
He explained that the more moderate-seeming Democrat won against the more firebrand Republican with the split-ticket idea.
“It seems to have more to do with a feel of a level of comfort and in a sense, sort of MAGA anger than it does the actual policies,” Vittert said.
He said that it turns out that more people cared about abortion and threats to democracy rather than voting on economic issues.