>>>Let's start with the mandate question. As of earlier this week, Trump was losing the popular vote by 1.7%.
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>Did the Republicans win the national popular vote in Congress? Nobody knows or cares and nobody is shrieking "Not my Congress" or claiming Congress has no mandate unless the Republicans won the national popular vote. Because that's not how you win in Congress. Congress, like the Presidential election, is done on an electoral basis. So anybody with a modicum of sense knows there's no point concocting alternative calculations that have nothing to do with the process. Except when it comes to Trump. You can invent anything you like to criticize Trump because Trump is naughty and two wrongs make a right.
Actually, people do know. It appears Republicans won the overall House vote by just under 2%:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oArjXSYeg40u4qQRR93qveN2N1UELQ6v04_mamrKg9g/edit#gid=0Interestingly, with 49.5% of the vote, they won 55% of the seats.
OTOH, Dems won the Senate vote significantly. However, that's somewhat misleading, because the primary system they use in California means that two Democrats were contending for the seat there. (And, of course, only a third of the Senate is up in any year.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/29/the-most-bogus-stat-of-the-2016-election-how-democrats-won-the-senate-popular-vote/?utm_term=.940e7b1a44f3That said, there have been several recent elections where Dems got more votes for the House and still ended up with many fewer seats. I don't know the overall statistics, but in 2012 (I think; might have been 2010), here in PA, Dems got about a million more votes, but only 5 of 18 seats.
Tamar
