User:Dss16/sandbox/Malapportionment in the United States Senate

Malapportionment in the United States Senate refers to the structural element of the United States Senate in which its members are each elected by populations of different sizes. This malapportionment results from Article One of the United States Constitution which grants each state two senators, and from the Seventeenth Amendment which makes senators subject to popular election.

Beneficiaries over time
By definition, any state having a population that is less than the national average will always benefit from Senate malapportionment, with the greatest benefits flowing to the smallest states. Such benefits are greatest in areas where an individual senator can have significant influence, such as federal funding for state and local projects, or blocking a nominee to seek a concession on a parochial matter. However, in policymaking areas of national interests, a state benefits most if its region or coalition of like-minded states is collectively advantaged by malapportionment, rather than the individual state itself. The regions and coalitions that have benefitted from Senate malapportionment have shifted over time.

Geographically-bounded coastal states: 1787
Equal state representation in the Senate resulted from the Connecticut compromise during the 1787 constitutional convention. During the convention, the strongest proponents of equal senate representation were small, coastal states who geographic boundaries had been firmly established – Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. In contrast, some Southern states like South Carolina, although small in population at the time, supported population-based representation since they anticipated significant future growth through westward expansion. Several of those states had open-ended western claims that were not resolved until well after the constitutional convention.

Slavery: 1812–1850
Between 1812 and 1850, debates over slavery became a defining element of national politics, and states were admitted roughly in pairs – free state and slave state – to preserve a balance in the Senate even as free states grew more rapidly. By 1850, the census showed that the 15 free states (excluding California) had a population of 13.3 million while the 15 slave states stated had a population of just 6.4 million, of which roughly half were slaves. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state in exchange for a stronger fugitive slave law and other concessions, but the admission of additional free states over the next decade broke the balance in the Senate and was ultimately a contributing factor to the  Civil War.

Republicans, the West, and business: 1876–1890
During the Reconstruction era, the Republican party – the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant – dominated the federal government. However, following the Panic of 1873, the Democrats rode an anti-corruption wave against the Grant administration to win control of the House of Representatives in the 1874 mid-term election; they would control the House for 16 of the next 20 years. Before leaving office, the outgoing Republican Congress voted to admit Colorado and New Mexico, which would both be Republican states, although ultimately only Colorado's admission was confirmed. This proved critical in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election when Colorado's three electoral votes were essential to the election of Rutherford B. Hayes.

By the mid 1880s, Republican post-war dominance was continuing to fade, with Grover Cleveland winning in 1884 to become the first Democrat elected president since 1856. However, the Republicans – who by then were becoming known as the party of business interests – were able to narrowly win back complete control in 1888, including an electoral college win for Benjamin Harrison, a narrow House majority, and  control of the Senate by a margin of 38-37-1. Lame-duck Democrats, including outgoing President Cleveland, feared the worst and thus agreed to the Enabling Act of 1889 which admitted Montana (which Democrats wanted) while also granting Republicans admission of Washington and splitting the Territory of Dakota into North Dakota and South Dakota. The states would ultimately send eight Republican senators to Congress, significantly increasing the party's margin. The following year, as Republican popularity continued to fall nationally, Congress voted to admit Idaho and Wyoming to further entrench Republican control of Congress. Following the 1890 census, Wyoming's apportionment population was over 95 times less than the largest state (New York); in the case of Nevada, which Republicans had admitted in 1864 during the Civil War, the difference was a factor of 131.

Some of the immediate gains would prove to be short-lived as control of these states would swing back and forth beginning with the election of 1892 and the collapse of the Fourth Party System. However, the admission of these territories as seven different states – one in 1876, four in 1889 and two in 1890 – continues to benefit the Republican Party in the Senate to this day. The two larger states, Colorado and Washington, have populations that are roughly comparable to the national average, and have voted largely Democratic in recent federal elections. The other five – Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming – have remained among the nation's lowest-population states, with a combined population in 2010 that is less than either Colorado or Washington alone. They are now considered solidly Republican in presidential elections, and as of 2020 they send 9 Republicans and 1 Democrat to the Senate.