Split-ticket voting played a prominent role in several battleground states during last week’s elections despite the practice becoming increasingly less common.
Democrats clinched major Senate wins in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, saving the party from a total wipeout in the upper chamber, despite Vice President Harris falling short in all of those states against President-elect Trump. In North Carolina, Gov.-elect Josh Stein (D) prevailed in the governor’s race while voters ultimately cast more ballots for Trump.
After months of speculation about the role ticket-splitting would play, the results showed the highest level in the past three presidential election years.
Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin, noted that across virtually every battleground state, “the Republican Senate candidates underperformed the presidential ticket.”
“I think that is the broader issue that we've seen in the 2022 midterms, is that Trump's personal popularity doesn't transfer to his party's Senate candidates,” he added.
Ticket-splitting — where voters cast ballots for different parties — has become less common in recent years. In 2016, there was no state that voted for a presidential candidate and Senate candidate of differing parties. In 2020, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only exception — the state went for President Biden at the top of the ticket while reelecting the Republican senator.
Compare that to 2012, when eight states split their tickets........