Seventeen states are represented by U.S. senators from different parties. As expected, pairs of senators from the remaining states vote more alike than pairs who caucus apart.
Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin agreed less often in 2013 than senators from any other state — ringing in only about 25 percent of votes alike.
Florida’s Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson came as the nation’s second “most disagreeable” pair, voting in agreement only about 27 percent of the time.
This analysis, conducted by the Alicia Parlapiano of the New York Times, visually portrays each state based on Senate partisanship and vote alignment.
Alaska and Maine represent outliers among “divided party” states. While members of the respective pairs caucus apart, their 2013 votes were alike nearly 75 percent of the time.
Then there is Utah and South Carolina. These states, each represented by two Republicans in the Senate, have vote alignment at just about 75 percent. Likewise, in West Virginia, Democrats Joe Manchin III and John D. Rockerfeller were aligned in votes about 80 percent of the time. For all other states with same-party senators, vote agreement inches quickly toward 100 percent.
Overall, pairs of Senate Democrats fall in line with each other’s views more often than pairs of Republicans.
What this all boils down to is that senators in 15 states cancel out each other’s votes more often than not.
