Congress and the people 385Baldwin (D-WI), who served as the representative of Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional
district from 1999 to 2013. Initially elected in 1998, she was Wisconsin’s first female
representative and the first openly gay person ever elected to a freshman term in
Congress.^15 In her first two elections, she won with the overwhelming support of liberal
voters in Madison, but she lost the surrounding rural areas and suburbs, narrowly
winning districtwide. Baldwin recognized that she needed to shore up support outside
Madison, and she spent time over the next several years meeting with constituents in
the rural and suburban parts of her district. She also explored issues important to these
voters, such as the dairy price support program and the problem of chronic wasting
disease in Wisconsin deer. Having built up her electoral base (and having benefited
from favorable redistricting in 2002), she cruised to victories in her next two elections,
winning nearly two-thirds of the vote. After winning reelection to the House four more
times, she became the first lesbian elected to the Senate in 2012.The Incumbency Advantage Members’ success at pleasing constituents produces
large election rewards. As Figure 11.3 shows, very few members are defeated in their
reelection races. One way that political scientists have documented the growth of
the incumbency advantage is to examine the electoral margins in House elections.
If a member is elected with less than 55 percent of the vote, he or she is said to hold a
marginal seat. Since the late 1960s, the number of marginal districts has been declining.
Having fewer marginal districts does not necessarily translate into fewer incumbent
defeats, but in the past two decades incumbent reelection rates have been near record
high levels, with 95 to 98 percent of House incumbents winning in many years.^16
In 2008, in an election that many called transformational, 95 percent of House
incumbents were still reelected. Although the Democrats picked up some seats in the
Senate, reelection remained the norm there as well. Even in the “tsunami” election of
2010, in which Republicans made the largest gains in the House since 1948, picking up 63
seats, 86 percent of all incumbents were reelected. Why are incumbents so successful?
Scholars have offered several reasons for this increase in incumbency advantage.In the District: Home Style One explanation for increasing incumbency advantage
is rooted in the diversity of congressional districts and states. Members typically
respond to the diversity in their districts by developing an appropriate home style:
a way of relating to the district.^17 A home style shapes the way members allocate
resources, the way incumbents present themselves to their district, and the way they
explain their policy positions.
Given the variation among districts, members’ home styles vary as well. In some
rural districts it is important for representatives to have local roots and voters expect
extensive contact with members. Urban districts expect a different kind of style. They
have a more mobile population, so it is not crucial to be homegrown. Voters expect less
direct contact and place more emphasis on how members explain their policy positions.
Incumbency advantage may be explained in part by the skill with which members have
cultivated their individual home styles in the last two decades. Members are spending
more time at home and less time in Washington than was true a generation ago. This
familiarity with the voters has helped them remain in office.
Table 11.1 shows how one member, Senator Tammy Baldwin, spent her time in
Washington and in her district as a House member. In general, a legislator’s workday in
the Capitol is split between committee meetings, briefings, staff meetings, meetings
with constituents, and various dinners and fund-raisers with interest groups and other
organizations, punctuated by dashes to the floor of the House or Senate to vote. Days
in the district are spent meeting with constituents to explain what is happening in
Washington and to listen to voters’ concerns.incumbency advantage
The relative infrequency with which
members of Congress are defeated in
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