Republican advantages in candidate recruitment in 2010 haveled to an increasingly polarized House of Representatives

In 2010, the Republican Party regained the House of Representatives, gaining 63 seats from the Democrats. Jamie L. Carson and Stephen Pettigrew take a close look at what fueled this near unprecedented gain, as well as Republican victories in the Senate. They argue that rising unemployment, President Obama’s declining approval ratings across the board, and the Republican ability to field many more candidates with previous electoral experiences were all factors in the Democrats’ significant defeat. They write that one of the consequences of the 2010 result was a much more politically polarized Congress, something that is still very much the case in 2013.