The Senate Is Not a Democracy

Two senators represent 40 million Californians. Two represent 580,000 in Wyoming.
This was a design choice.

Wyoming has fewer residents than many American cities. California has 40 million. Each sends two people to the United States Senate — the body that confirms Supreme Court justices, ratifies treaties, and can remove a president from office.

The arrangement was settled on July 16, 1787, by a single vote. The Connecticut Compromise was a political deal struck among thirteen colonies along the Eastern Seaboard, the largest of which, Virginia, had roughly 750,000 people. The argument for equal Senate representation was that small states needed protection from large ones. That was a reasonable concern when the population gap between Delaware and Virginia was a matter of hundreds of thousands. It is a different argument when the gap is 40 million to 580,000.

The structural consequences are documented. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Rutgers University recalculated 804 key Senate votes between 1961 and 2019 and found that malapportionment systematically biases policy outcomes toward Republican preferences. Twelve major bills that passed under Trump would have failed in a proportional Senate. Seven that failed under Obama would have passed. On legislation covering LGBT rights, abortion, and gun control, the outcomes would have reversed. Several Supreme Court justices confirmed under Republican presidents would have failed confirmation. The Senate did not produce these outcomes because Republicans persuaded a majority of Americans. It produced them because the rules guarantee a structural minority can govern as a majority — indefinitely and legally.

Some constitutional scholars, including Yale's Akhil Reed Amar, have proposed workarounds: amend Article V to remove the entrenchment clause, then reapportion, or implement weighted voting within the existing 100-senator structure. The debate has remained entirely in law reviews.

By 2040, the 16 most populous states will hold roughly 70 percent of the American population. The remaining 34 — home to 30 percent of Americans — will control 68 Senate seats. The arithmetic is not approaching. It is already here.