Admittedly, this has nothing to do with media or the web – the usual topics of this blog… but the U.S. Senate has been on my mind recently for many reasons, including this excellent New Yorker piece by George Packer.
Since each state has two senators regardless of population I started to wonder what the least representative possible Senate majority would look like. In other words: what percentage of the U.S. population lives in the 26 least populated states (since the senators of these states, acting together, could technically form a majority)?
It turns out that a Senate majority could be reached that represented only 16% of the country. A filibuster could be broken (60 votes, 30 states) by a coalition representing 22% of the country.
(To reach these figures I used the Census Bureau’s 2009 state population estimates.)
I don’t want to make any normative claim here. The Senate wasn’t designed to reflect state population and when the nation was founded senators weren’t even directly elected. I don’t have firm opinions about how I’d reform the Senate so my purpose here is merely descriptive.
That hypothetical majority – 52 Senators from the 26 least populous states – would be comprised of 23 Republicans, 27 Democrats and 2 Independents.
The map below shows the 26 least populous states in DARK GRAY, the next 4 least populous (needed to reach a 60 vote coalition) in LIGHT GRAY, and the 20 most populous in WHITE.
Of course in the 60-vote Senate blocking legislation is significantly easier than passing it. As David Roberts of Grist notes, senators representing a mere 8.3% of the population could successfully filibuster legislation.
beyond the times 