Why people only pay attention to the Presidential election, but not the Congressional seats

The truth is, studying up on local and congressional elections can be tiring when you have to learn about different candidates, as well  as study propositions, and at the same time, pay attention to the presidential election.

Political apathy is fairly common in our country. In the 2012 election, the Presidential election only got about 57% of the vote. You may think that’s not horrible, and it’s not. However, when we look at the number of eligible voters who voted in the 2014-midterm elections (only Congress), only about 36% of voters exercised their right to vote. That is incredibly low, to me at least, for a country priding itself on democracy and representation.

Most people just don’t care about congress. Maybe they’ve been taught there are three branches of government, but feel the executive branch is the most important, because the President is leader of the free world. So why should they care about Congress when the President has all the power?

Some people just don’t pay attention to politics. Ask an everyday person on the street if they know who Maggie Hassan is, and whom she’s running against. Ask them what their thoughts are on the fact that Missouri is becoming more of a swing state, with a Democratic governor and a Democratic senator close to unseating a Republican incumbent. Most people wouldn’t know, and don’t really care about the intricacies of politics in that way.

Another reason for Congressional apathy could be that voters just vote Republican, or Democrat, or Libertarian down the ballot. A voter in Ohio may, for example, see Senator Rob Portman (R) and vote for him based solely off of his party. They don’t care who he is, or what he stands for, but they see the R and that’s all they need.

In my opinion, Congress is the most important branch of government, passing bills, forming committees, determining budgets and taxes, and everything in between. Congress can determine which Supreme Court Justice will be chosen, and to which countries certain ambassadors will be sent. The President can do very little without Congress, making it the most important branch to vote for in the elections.

Thanks everyone!