You’re correct, Kaine. Since it didn’t happen, we’ll never know. I go by favorable/unfavorable ratings in hypothetical races like that as history as shown folks usually won’t vote for someone they dislike. It’s not perfect nor ideal, but it’s the best way I know.

Yes Jeffrey, it worked. I think the Democrats learned from 2016 whereas the Republicans didn’t. It wasn’t a secret independents were going for Biden over Trump big. When your candidate, Trump has a 60% unfavorable rating from independents, that means you’re not going to win the independent vote. A must for Republicans nationally since they’re still the smaller of the two major parties. They always have been since FDR. Not much difference these days, not like in the past when the Democratic Party was the big tent party, but the democrats still hold a slight edge. Roughly 2 points give or take a point or two..

From FDR until Reagan those who affiliated themselves with the democratic party averaged 45-28 over the Republican Party. That was the big tent era where the democrats controlled the house for 58 out of 62 years. From Reagan until Obama that average dropped to 35-30 and from Obama it’s 30-27 as of September 2022.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.