|
|
|
When Obama
took office |
As Trump
takes office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats in the U.S. House | We have framed these in terms of Democrats because those were Obama’s party; Republican trends, of course, moved in the opposite direction. President Obama entered the White House leading a party with a comfortable majority in the House. But after that first Congress, Democrats were never again in the majority, and today, Republicans have almost as big a share of seats as Dems did in 2009, giving Trump a big advantage in passing his agenda. (Current values shown reflect 2016 election results. | Sources: 1, 2) | 257 (111th Congress) | 194 (115th Congress) |
| Democrats in the U.S. Senate | President Obama started off his time as president with 58 fellow Democrats in the Senate, but still not a filibuster-proof majority. He held on to a slim majority for the next three Congresses but lost it after the 2014 election. (Current values shown reflect 2016 election results. | Sources: 1, 2) | 57 (111th Congress) | 46 (115th Congress) |
| Democratic governors | Democrats have lost major ground in the states since Obama took office. In 2009, Dems made up nearly 3 in 5 governors. Today, it’s fewer than 2 in 5. (Current values shown reflect 2016 election results. | Sources: 1, 2) | 28 (September 2009) | 16 (January 2017) |
| Democrats in statehouses | The decline in Democratic lawmakers extended to the state level, with the number of Dems in state legislatures declining by more than 900 over Obama’s tenure. (Current values shown reflect 2016 election results. | Sources: 1, 2) | 4,082 (Jan. 26, 2009) | 3,135 (Dec. 15, 2016) |
| Party identification | Party ID can hop around from month to month and year to year, but one recent trend is clear: Increasingly, Americans have decided to identify as independents, leaving the major parties behind. (Sources: 1, 2) | 36% D, 33% I, 30% R (January 2009) | 25% D, 44% I, 28% R (January 2017) |