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American politics are experiencing something new this month – a completely blue Pacific coast.
For the first time since the rise of the modern Republican Party prior to In Civil War, the Democrats would retain all of the West Coast congressional districts. California, Oregon, and Washington still have Republicans in Congress, but they represent the interior of these states, and none of their constituencies reach the coastline.
Given the prevailing conventional wisdom that the West Coast is leaning left, many may shrug this development as unsurprising, or even wonder why it hasn’t happened before. not. As a historical phenomenon, however, it constitutes a culmination of marked geographic shifts in partisan identity.
From the Civil War of the 1860s to the Great Depression of the 1930s, Republicans dominated West Coast politics.from Held annually between the 38th and 39th Congresses, 1863-67 house sheet From the Pacific states, all of those districts reach the coastline. Even during the Great Depression, Republicans persisted in a few coastal districts, and Republican Richard J. Welch said that from 1926 until 1949 he represented San Francisco for 12 terms and served as the Second World War. After the war, it made a strong return to the area. His three West Coast presidents, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, were all Republicans.
The rise of democracy across the Pacific coast is a late 20th century development. Once upon a time, both Oregon and Washington were definitely Republican states. This changed in his 1960s, by which time his two new Pacific coast states had joined the Union, and Alaska had one Republican congressman, Rep. He served as president for almost 50 years until his death in 2022. Democratic Rep. Mary Election The Democrats swept the West Coast with Pertola succeeding Young and the upset victory of Rep. Maria Grusenkamp Perez in the southwestern Washington countryside.
In parts of California, notably the Far North and Orange County, this Democratic dominance is far less inland, but the coastline from Crescent City to San Diego is blue, as are the coastal districts of Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska. be.
For the Pacific Coast, it was the blue wave of 2022.
The last time Democrats won all the seats on the Pacific Coast was in 1858, when there were only two states and three congressional districts west of the Rocky Mountains. In the Civil War, the Republicans had almost complete dominance. The area is now fully back to Democrats.
The East Coast has never experienced anything like it before. Through more states, more diversity, more electoral districts, and more political history, no party ever fully dominated the Atlantic coast. Even in the 1980s, a minority of Republicans clung to the Northeast constituencies, much as they did during the Republican predominance of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even the resignation of Southern congressmen during the Civil War did not allow the Republicans to control all the remaining districts on the East Coast.
In most Pacific states, independent commissions draw district boundaries. Democratic rule does not spring from partisan gerrymandering. It reflects the opinion of the majority of coastal dwellers. Maybe it’s in the water. Alaska has his two remaining Republican senators, but other than that, Democrats occupy all seats in the Senate on the West Coast, and Joe Biden has just one of his 81 electoral votes in the Pacific. Got his 78 votes without breaking a sweat.
The 2022 midterm elections were the culmination of a historic shift from Republican leanings to Democratic dominance on the West Coast. But it wasn’t enough to keep the Democrats in control of the House, and a new Republican House Speaker could come from upstate California.
Edward J. Larson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 16 books on American political, legal and cultural history, lives on the West Coast overlooking the blue Pacific Ocean.
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