UNH Today

Michael Ettlinger, the director of the Carsey School,  believes that rural voters have 37% more power to determine control of the Senate. The rural bias of the Senate has existed for a long time, though partisan shifts have meant it only started directly damaging Democrats recently ― the party had senators in both North and South Dakota as recently as 2012. Ettlinger notes it has always given rural states extra policy influence, making gun control legislation more difficult to pass and leading to lavish agricultural subsidies.