# Why are Republicans majority in both houses ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-majority-in-both-houses/250531>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 15, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-majority-in-both-houses/250531 "2004-06-15T19:59:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-majority-in-both-houses/250531/21 "2004-06-17T00:23:27Z")

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> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> I usually stay out of this forum, but can’t resist asking WTF the above quotation translates to. They’re English words (or most of them are), but when strung together in this order they seem to be merely noise.

Milum speaks his own special pidgin.

We’re hoping to develop a dance and put on dinner shows for Yankee tourists.

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**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-majority-in-both-houses/250531/22 "2004-06-17T22:33:00Z")

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> [@Evil One](#):
>
> What I was trying to say is that the majority of the electorate in the majority of the 435 house districts favor Republicans. Hence, a Republican majority.

Yeah, that’s fair. I hope it did not appear that I got all in your face for not writing out the importance of the number of districts, rather than an aggregate number of voters.

> [@](#):
>
> It would be nearly impossible to draw a district to favor an individual, and the Supreme Court has struck down efforts to draw districts designed to favor certain population segments. There are also five elections between each census…an eternity in politics.

Districts are routinely drawn to favor individuals – but not always in the most obvious way. For example, after every census, party X in state government often tries to consolidate two party Y districts so that two sitting party Y congressmen have to run against each other in a primary, creating two new party X-leaning districts. These districts need not look silly, either – see [here](http://writ.news.findlaw.com/lazarus/20031225.html). Quote: “In California, for example, electoral lines were not redrawn via computer to tilt the scales toward one political party or another. But they were redrawn to ensure re-election for all California’s congressional incumbents by carving out districts containing a majority of their likely supporters.”

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