The ticket-splitting voter may be going the way of other quaint political customs, such as straw boaters, torchlight parades and political conventions that people actually watch.
In 2016, for the first time since the direct election of U.S. senators in 1914, every Senate race went the same direction as the presidential race. In other words, if Trump won a state, the seat went to a Republican. If Hillary Clinton prevailed, the seat went Democratic.
The pattern held this time with the exception of Maine, where Biden won and Republican Susan Collins was reelected to her fifth term, and perhaps Georgia, a Biden state where both GOP senators are favored to prevail in runoffs to keep their seats.
America has been increasingly sorting itself by political preference, dividing into unyielding tribes. There used to be an abundance of center-left Republicans and center-right Democrats. No more.
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Media that cater to one partisan viewpoint or the other reinforce that separation and estrangement, presenting each side with its own set of "facts" and version of "the truth" it holds self-evident.
The middle ground is growing vanishingly small.
A survey conducted by pollster Bill McInturff and his Republican firm found about 9 in 10 people voted this election for the same party for Congress and the White House, compared with less than two-thirds in 2000.
If partisanship is what makes up voters' minds, job performance matters a great deal less. "You can be a really good member of Congress, working hard," McInturff said, "but if the top of the ticket is a member of the other party and people are straight-ticket voting, you may be a goner."
