Three of the worse Republican governors Sam Brownback, Bobby Jindal (now happily ex-governor), and Rick Snyder
Credit: AP/Reuters/Charlie Riedel/Brian Snyder/Rebecca Cook

Although Democrats have held the White House for eight years, during that same time they have suffered dramatic losses at the state level. Part of this is due to low turnout in midterm elections, which favors Republicans because low-income people, young people and people of color make up a smaller portion of the electorate. In addition, the out-of-power party tends to gain during midterm elections. A more recent development that similarly favors down-ticket Republicans is the power of big donors like the Koch brothers, who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into elections to get conservative candidates elected at the state level.

Another theory is presented by Tyler Cowen, who argues, among other things, that:

At the state and local level, the governments controlled by Republicans tend to be better […]

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Anthony Bruner and Mary Lou Bruner at a Texas State Board of Education meeting in 2010.
Credit: Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press

MINEOLA, Tex. — On Super Tuesday, Dale Clark voted for a local Republican who claimed on social media that President Obama had worked as a gay prostitute in his youth, that the United States should ban Islam, that the Democratic Party had John F. Kennedy killed and that the United Nations had hatched a plot to depopulate the world.

Mr. Clark, 75, was unaware that the candidate he had supported — Mary Lou Bruner, 68, a former kindergarten teacher running for a seat on the State Board of Education — held such views. But as he sat with his wife eating lunch in this East Texas city, Mr. Clark was ready to give Ms. Bruner the benefit of the doubt.

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