Thanks to demographics, the Republicans have a virtual stranglehold on the House of Representatives.

Source: www.nytimes.com

While the first reaction might be to blame partisan redistricting (a.k.a. gerrymandering) for the the political gridlock between the presidential results and House of Representatives.  Gerrymandering does play a role, but the spatial concentrations and distributions of voting constituencies explain why the Democrats have recently won the popular vote in 5 out of the last 6 presidential elections, but can’t control the House of Representatives.  Metro areas are highly left-leaning, currently creating a national majority for Democrats, but that high concentration is a drawback when trying to win a majority of the seats in the House.  This is a good article as a primer for electoral geography.  

Tags: political, regions, spatial, unit 4 political.