For 17 straight months, independents have polled at more than 40 percentage points. And for the last 77 Gallup polls, independents have beaten Democrats and Republicans.

In other words, since December 27, 2012, American voters have consistently identified as independent over Republican and Democrat—sometimes by margins as high as 21 percentage points.

So how do those numbers hold up in Congress? Not well.

In the 100-seat Senate, 51% of members are Republican, 47% are Democrat and 2% are independent. The two independent senators are Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.

The House of Representatives is even more skewed. Republicans control 55.4% of the 435 seats. Democrats control 44.6%. That leaves—surprise—zero independents in the House.

So how do Republicans control 51% of the Senate, 55.4% of the House and have a sitting president when only 26% of American voters identify as Republican?

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Americans who are white, 65 years or older and male all vote in higher numbers.

Party identification trends collected by the Pew Research Center since 1992 also corroborate that the Republican party has more older white men than other parties.

There are several key factors that keep voters from turning out on election day, including various state laws on voter identification, the lack of election holidays, congressional districting and long lines.

Closed primaries may also be a major contributing factor for independent voter participation as the majority of states require voters to declare party affiliation before congressional and presidential primary elections.

The Pew Research data also indicates Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats when compared by category to minorities, women, Gen Xers, Boomers, Millennials, college graduates, Catholics and Jews.

Regardless, Republicans continue winning seats because they show up on election days.