Taking Sides on Facebook: How Congressional Outreach Changed Under President Trump
Democratic legislators’ opposition to political adversaries on Facebook spiked after Trump’s election, while "angry" reactions to posts by members of Congress increased among followers.
Senate’s August recess could be its shortest in decades
Mitch McConnell’s decision to shorten the chamber’s August recess isn’t unprecedented. But in an election year – when a third of senators are on the campaign trail – it’s unusual.
Voters More Focused on Control of Congress – and the President – Than in Past Midterms
The congressional elections are more than four months away, but voter engagement is high when compared with comparable points in previous midterm cycles.
U.S. population keeps growing, but House of Representatives is same size as in Taft era
The U.S. House of Representatives has one voting member (435 in total) for every 747,000 or so Americans. That's by far the highest ratio of population to representatives of any industrialized democracy, and the highest it's ever been in U.S. history.
Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution seldom go anywhere
The vast majority of proposed amendments die quiet, little-mourned deaths in committees and subcommittees.
Near-record number of House members not seeking re-election in 2018
More members of the U.S. House of Representatives are choosing not to seek re-election than at any time in the past quarter-century.
There’s a large gender gap in congressional Facebook posts about sexual misconduct
About seven-in-ten women in Congress mentioned sexual misconduct in their official Facebook posts between Oct. 1 and Dec. 30, 2017, compared with 37% of men in Congress.
Very liberal or conservative legislators most likely to share news on Facebook
Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time
In the four decades that the current system for budgeting and spending tax dollars has been in effect, Congress has managed to pass all required appropriations bills on time only four times.
Split U.S. Senate delegations have become less common in recent years
Doug Jones' victory in Alabama gives that state its first split Senate delegation in more than two decades. But delegations with two senators of different parties still are much less common than they used to be: With 14 split delegations, the current Senate is tied for the second-fewest in the past 50 years.
