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Article: The 1992 and 1996 presidential elections: whatever happened to the Republican electoral college lock?
- Article from:
- Presidential Studies Quarterly
- Article date:
- January 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Center for the Study of the Presidency. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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After Republican candidates won seven of ten presidential contests from 1952 through 1988, and five of six of the contests between 1968 and 1988, pundits proclaimed that the Republicans held an electoral college "lock" This view of a Republican lock on the electoral college was further supported by two facts.
First, it appeared that there were a number of states that the GOP could almost always count on carrying in presidential elections (primarily located in the South and the West), while the Democrats had relatively few "safe" states. For example, Schneider observes that "In the nine Presidential elections from 1952 to 1984, thirty-nine states have gone ...