Recapping the Midterms

The midterm elections are confusing. Whether you’re a seasoned politician or a high school student desperately trying to keep up, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the assortment of names — let’s be honest, we all asked ourselves if it was Beh-to or Bay-to — and political procedures that go into our official selection process. Even when publications like the New York Times try to keep it simple, it’s still a massive flood of information that’s hard to manage. So let’s break it down.

Importance

Elections are always important, but why did this one receive so much hype?

There’s two key reasons.

Midterm elections are usually a gauge of sitting president’s performance, and many saw the 2018 elections as America’s opinion on Trump’s presidency so far.

Second, Democrats were given a chance to take back Congress and various other elected positions. Republicans held a majority in the House and the Senate prior to the election.

Unfortunately, while voter turnout for presidential races is usually around 60%, turnout for midterms is usually only around 40%. The hype was about increasing turnout for this game-changing election.

Logistics

School teaches the basics of U.S. government: there are three branches, a bicameral legislature, 50 states, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really teach us the need-to-knows of elections. Let’s crunch the numbers of the 2018 midterms.

There are 435 seats total in the House of Representatives. All were up for election because the term for a Representative is 2 years. Democrats needed to flip 23 seats to gain a majority. There was a good chance because 40 Republicans weren’t running again.

There are 100 seats in the Senate. 35 were up for election because the term for a Senator is 6 years. Democrats needed to flip 2 seats to gain a majority. There was a very small chance because Republicans were in the lead for most of the Senate races.

There are 50 governors. 36 were up for election because the term for a governor is 4 years.

There were more than than 6,000 members of state legislatures to be elected.

Results

Republicans held the Senate, while Democrats now control the House.

In Texas, incumbent senator Ted Cruz prevailed over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. Although Beto received record amounts of funding and grassroots support, Cruz secured votes from traditional GOP bases. However, Cruz won by only 2.6 percentage points or around 223,000 votes, meaning O’Rourke came closer to toppling a Republican senator in Texas than anyone in 40 years. Many believe the close race signals a shifting Texas electorate.

In Florida, where a recount was conducted due to the small margin of victory, Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson finally conceded to GOP candidate Rick Scott. The results further boosted Republicans’ majority in the Senate.

In Georgia, the gubernatorial race captured national attention. Democrat Stacey Abrams ran against GOP opponent Brian Kemp. If she won, she would’ve been the first female African American governor, particularly impressive given Georgia has typically been a Republican stronghold. On November 16, Abrams admitted her loss. However, she announced she would sue the state for their mismanagement of the election process, accusing them of disenfranchising Democratic voters.

Races in Arizona, Missouri, and Indiana also helped define this year’s contentious midterms, setting important precedents for our nation’s elections left and right.

The Future

Democrats may not have won the Senate, but they did make significant gains. In the last 25 years, the House has only been flipped 3 times.

But more concretely, the results of the 2018 midterm elections mean that Republicans no longer control all three branches of the government. While they still control the executive branch and have a majority in the Supreme Court, they no longer hold control over Congress.

With power in Washington now divided, Democrats are very likely to try and block Trump’s agenda. Republican bills will no longer automatically slide through Congress. Additionally, the House will very likely use their subpoena power to investigate Trump and his administration more thoroughly.

You

Although occasionally a pain, understanding our country’s elections is essential towards being an informed citizen. But let’s go a step further. Let’s take our words and turn them into actions. As Kennedy once said, “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” YOU can make a difference. Be the people.