Key Congressional Elections in History

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2018

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the 2018 midterm elections fast approaching, this episode delves into the history of congressional elections, from the Founding to today, answering the questions: What did the Founders expect that Congressional elections would look like? What did they look like throughout the 19th and 20th centuries? How did they lead to the political tribalism of the 21st century? And what can the most consequential congressional elections, the ones that realigned and redefined our nation, tell us about the upcoming election? Host Jeffrey Rosen is joined by two leading experts on Congress, its history, and congressional elections – Matthew Green of Catholic University and Thomas Mann of UC Berkeley and Brookings.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We The People,
0:12.2	a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:15.0	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase
0:20.4	awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:25.5	The 2018 midterm elections are coming up and it's time to delve into constitutional history.
0:32.6	What did the framers expect
0:34.7	that congressional elections would look like?
0:38.2	What have they looked like over the course of history
0:40.8	and are there parallels to our current times in the past 200 years.
0:46.2	Joining us to discuss the constitutional and historical dimensions of the congressional midterm
0:51.6	elections are two of America's leading experts on Congress
0:55.2	congressional history and elections. Matthew Green is professor of
0:58.7	politics at Catholic University and author of the Speaker of the House, a study of leadership as well as a forthcoming
1:06.6	study of Newt Gingrich.
1:09.2	Matthew, thank you so much for joining.
1:11.4	Thank you.
1:12.4	And Thomas Mann is Senior Fellow in Governance Studies
1:14.9	at the Brookings Institution. He has written extensively on Congress and his many books
1:20.9	include the invaluable and best selling.
1:24.7	The Broken Branch, how Congress is failing America
1:27.4	and how to get it back on track,
1:29.7	co-authored with Norm Ornstein and many other works.
	...

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