Next year, 19 Democratic senators will be up for re-election in states with pivot counties — counties that voted twice for Barack Obama and then voted for Donald Trump. This includes seven states where more than 10 percent of voters live in pivot counties. In four other states, from 5 percent to 10 percent of voters live in pivot counties.
In 2016, pivot county voters cast only 5 percent of the vote nationwide, but they accounted for 51 percent of the Republican popular vote improvement. Because of this outsized impact, Ballotpedia is regularly releasing new pivot county data to explore national trends leading up to the midterm elections.
Six Democrats are running for re-election in states won by Donald Trump and where at least 5 percent of the voters live in Pivot Counties: Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, and Bill Nelson in Florida.
Additionally, Amy Klobuchar is running for re-election in Minnesota, a state with nearly 10 percent of the voters living in pivot counties. While Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016, the margin of victory was less than 2 percentage points.
In Iowa and Michigan, pivot counties played a crucial role in Trump’s victory. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, pivot counties were significant; however, solidly Republican counties played a bigger role. In Wisconsin, the biggest gains came from counties won by Barack Obama in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012, and Donald Trump in 2016.
In addition to the 206 pivot counties in America, there are 2,226 solidly Republican counties and 449 solidly Democratic counties.
Maine boasts the largest share of voters living in a pivot county — 47 percent. These counties enabled Trump to win an Electoral College vote from northern Maine.
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|
Name of Senator
|
Number of Pivot Counties
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Total Number of Counties in State
|
Percent of Voters Living in Pivot Counties
|
|
Maine
|
Angus King*
|
8
|
16
|
47.08%
|
|
New York
|
Kirsten Gillibrand
|
18
|
62
|
19.37%
|
|
Michigan
|
Debbie Stabenow
|
12
|
83
|
18.36%
|
|
Delaware
|
Tom Carper
|
1
|
3
|
18.26%
|
|
Wisconsin
|
Tammy Baldwin
|
23
|
72
|
17.35%
|
|
Rhode Island
|
Sheldon Whitehouse
|
1
|
5
|
15.69%
|
|
Ohio
|
Sherrod Brown
|
9
|
88
|
13.95%
|
|
Minnesota
|
Amy Klobuchar
|
19
|
87
|
9.97%
|
|
Indiana
|
Joe Donnelly
|
5
|
92
|
7.98%
|
|
Pennsylvania
|
Bob Casey
|
3
|
67
|
7.05%
|
|
Florida
|
Bill Nelson
|
4
|
67
|
6.71%
|
|
Washington
|
Maria Cantwell
|
5
|
39
|
4.74%
|
|
New Mexico
|
Martin Heinrich
|
3
|
33
|
4.54%
|
|
New Jersey
|
Bob Menendez
|
2
|
21
|
4.00%
|
|
Virginia
|
Tim Kaine
|
5
|
133
|
3.95%
|
|
Montana
|
Jon Tester
|
3
|
56
|
3.37%
|
|
Connecticut
|
Chris Murphy
|
1
|
8
|
3.28%
|
|
North Dakota
|
Heidi Heitkamp
|
4
|
53
|
2.56%
|
|
Vermont
|
Bernie Sanders*
|
1
|
14
|
0.99%
|
|
*Independents Who Caucus With Democrats
Sources: Ballotpedia, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential elections
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Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia. Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
Scott Rasmussen is a Senior Fellow for the Study of Self-Governance at the King’s College in New York and an Editor-At-Large for Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. His most recent book, "Politics Has Failed: America Will Not," was published by the Sutherland Institute in May. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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