I mentioned when the GOP “swept the nation” during the ’14 midterms, that Senate gains were more a result of each state having two national representatives regardless of population rather than some actual shift in ideology. It seems the Republicans are still favored by just the 46% or so of Americans who supported Mitt Romney for President in ’12. At Vox, Dylan Matthews breaks down the numbers even further. The opening:

“On Tuesday, 33 US senators elected in November will be sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden — including 12 who are new to the chamber. The class includes 22 Republicans and 11 Democrats, a big reason why the GOP has a 54-46 majority in the Senate overall.

But here’s a crazy fact: those 46 Democrats got more votes than the 54 Republicans across the 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections. According to Nathan Nicholson, a researcher at the voting reform advocacy group FairVote, ‘the 46 Democratic caucus members in the 114th Congress received a total of 67.8 million votes in winning their seats, while the 54 Republican caucus members received 47.1 million votes.'”