Why is it very difficult for the GOP to win the popular vote?

[BaldEagle1991]

One: Most urban areas are Democratic and are becoming much more so. Urban areas have more people in them.

Two: The failure for the Republicans to even win over 50% of most ethnic minorities, religious minorities. Heck, I’m surprised the Republicans didn’t even try to cut the African American vote down to 50-50 with the Democrats in the 90s.

Basically the Republican Party can’t rely just on rural Whites anymore. Heck they’re even losing the suburban crowd, which the 2018 and 2020 elections have shown.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Rs have always been the minority party, they stopped being fiscally discipled and wanting to pursue term limits, because they started being empowered. 

If they go back to balanced budgets and term limits then they can be empowered that was the party of Reagan

[Non Swing Voter]

Because the GOP isn't even trying to court most Americans.  They got lucky with Trump and then rammed through Judges.  They know they are out of touch but are holding on to some levers of power because of their advantage in the Senate.  This allows them to be a somewhat competitive national party even though a sizable majority of Americans despise them.

Their advantage in the Senate is not going to last though, not when states like Georgia and North Carolina ultimately flip like Virginia, which they will.

[Hammy]

Their policies are unpopular and widely disliked, at least to the extent that they have policy anymore in the first place.

A majority of Americans don't want to vote for a party solely to trigger the other side.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Because they don't need to. Electoral outcomes are the product of an equilibrium between party strategies, and it's been clear for a while now that the Republican path of least resistance to political power (in the Electoral College but also in the House and the Senate) doesn't require them to win the popular vote.

[BaldEagle1991]

For anyone that thinks their ideas aren't appealing, keep in mind they have managed to keep the Senate since 2015, and gained US House seats this election.

It's just that their ideas aren't appealing where the large population centers are.

[slothdem]

If the Republican Party had popular policies then they would dominate politics in this country the same way that the Tories dominate politics in the UK. But they don't, so Democrats win the most votes in almost every election, but because of this country's counter-majoritarian institutions it ends up being close to a 50/50 affair.

[Motorcity]

I think the GOP could win the popular vote if they play their cards right

Had Trump acted “presidential” he would have won and at least come close to the popular vote.

[dspNY]

California and New York

[HisGrace]

Because more people prefer the Democrats and an outright majority don't like the Republicans. Not sure why there needs to be a more complicated answer here. Republicans defend the EC by calling the PV a "system" that disadvantages them when really it's just counting the votes and seeing what the people prefer.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Democrats actually did better in the tipping point state than the popular vote for 2004, 2008, and 2012.

[BaldEagle1991]

California and New York

Yet the Republicans bash those states relentlessly.

You don't see Democrats bashing Texas, Georgia, Arizona much. That strategy helped them win 2/3 of those.

[Non Swing Voter]

California and New York

Yet the Republicans bash those states relentlessly.

You don't see Democrats bashing Texas, Georgia, Arizona much. That strategy helped them win 2/3 of those.

That's more just because Republican politicians are garbage human beings.

[Hnv1]

if I may use a football analogy (or what you call soccer), they're the party of George Graham. they go for 1-0 victories in the EC instead of flamboyant 4-2.

Boring boring Arsenal

[MasterJedi]

For anyone that thinks their ideas aren't appealing, keep in mind they have managed to keep the Senate since 2015, and gained US House seats this election.

It's just that their ideas aren't appealing where the large population centers are.

They also think Biden will take their guns too. Likely their positions wouldn't be anywhere near as popular, even with their base if they knew their actual positions and didn't get the "but the libs" propaganda nonstop. Like how they blame "the libs" for big businesses not creating jobs from Trump's glorious tax cut.

[Crumpets]

For anyone that thinks their ideas aren't appealing, keep in mind they have managed to keep the Senate since 2015, and gained US House seats this election.

It's just that their ideas aren't appealing where the large population centers are.

They also think Biden will take their guns too. Likely their positions wouldn't be anywhere near as popular, even with their base if they knew their actual positions and didn't get the "but the libs" propaganda nonstop. Like how they blame "the libs" for big businesses not creating jobs from Trump's glorious tax cut.

This is more a lesson for how Democrats should be politicking rather than why the GOP is bad. There's only been one president this century who has said on tape he wants to take people's guns without due process, and it wasn't a Dem.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It is mainly because of California.

This year about 6 million votes separated Biden from Trump. 5 million of that 6 million vote margin is from California. If you take the 5 million vote winning margin from California out of the equation, then Biden and Trump are only separated by about 1 million votes nationwide. That would be a lot easier for a Republican candidate to chip away at by winning a few more votes here and there in all the other states. Take ten states and garner 100,000 more votes in each state and it's an even popular vote nationwide. But when you have one state giving an excess of 5 million votes to the Democrat, it's almost impossible for a Republican to overcome that. If you watch election results come in on election night, the popular vote is pretty even for the first few hours, sometimes even favoring the Republican, then the California results start coming in and it changes.

Sure, but let's not fall into the trap of this somehow meaning that California's votes don't matter. In a fair electoral system how a state votes at all wouldn't matter. Votes would be votes, no matter where they'd be from. We just so happen to have an antiquated, ludicrous system that forces us to look at our country as 56 separate entities.