MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin makes an interesting point: In several key races this year, voters will be picking between two candidates who, overall, are viewed more negatively than positively.

There are a few obvious reasons for this, as Sarlin points out: increased political polarization leads to less of a middle ground of opinion, the ceaseless flood of ads meant to make candidates look as horrendous as possible. (And that's not just from candidates, either; more than three-quarters of outside ads have the same goal.)

We pulled the most recent polling in key Senate races to figure out what this looks like in action. It's a bit apples-and-oranges, since we're talking about different polls at different times. But in the Senate races in Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, we can already predict a winner: Someone more unpopular than popular. Nor is having a positive approval rating a guarantee of success; in several races, the less-approved-of candidate is doing better in the polls. (A note: The Kansas race asked about how "in touch" the candidate was, not favorability or approval.)

There's only one race where both candidates were viewed positively or neutrally in the polls we looked at: Iowa. Kudos to the good people of Iowa for living up to the stereotype.

We'll note, too, that net favorability ratings -- the people who view the candidate negatively subtracted from those who view him or her positively -- fluctuate depending on how well candidates are known. The numbers from Arkansas are from the most recent survey in the race that included favorability rankings, and it's a month old. Almost a fifth of voters had no opinion of Tom Cotton, which casts his net approval in a different light. It also reinforces that the data above is used to prove a point, not to represent the current state of each contest.

Sarlin notes that this isn't solely the domain of Senate candidates. In Florida's governor's race, for example, incumbent Rick Scott (R) is eight points underwater, compared to former governor Charlie Crist (D), who's only five points more negatively viewed. By the standards of 2014, that's basically a wash.

Poll sources: CNN (Alaska), CNN (N.H.), Quinnipiac (Iowa), USA Today (Colo.), Fox News (Kan.), Suffolk (Ark.),

Bluegrass (Ky.), and SurveyUSA (N.C.).