US Midterm Results and Their Importance for Biden’s Presidency
Photo Courtesy: The Washington Post
The US midterm elections, which were held on November 8th 2022, were expected to result in a “red wave” of Republican votes across the country.
Despite these predictions, the results proved tighter than polls had anticipated, comforting Democrats in their maintaining of power and strengthening President Biden’s position within the party. The elections were held at the midpoint of Biden’s mandate, and will therefore impact the rest of his presidency.
US citizens voted for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and for 35 of the 100 seats in the federal Senate. Republicans won the lower chamber of federal congress—the House of Representatives—by securing 219 seats against 212 for Democrats. The key toss up seats included Iowa and Colorado’s seats, which switched from blue to red.
Following the Republicans’ takeover of the House, incumbent House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, passed her title to Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. President Biden publicly congratulated McCarthy and declared being “ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families.”
Republicans winning back the lower chamber implies new challenges for the remainder of Biden’s presidency, as Conservatives are now more powerful at defying and overturning policies proposed by the Democrat Party. A Republican House could also lead to “the promotion of extremist beliefs and measures,” which had until now been contained by a Democratic majority in the lower chamber.
Concerning the Senate, results were even tighter than for the House of Representatives.
Democrats managed to remain in control of the upper chamber by winning 50 seats, but Republicans succeeded in winning 49.
Biden’s party won key races in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, where they took red seats, but Republicans managed to win in traditionally Democrat constituencies such as upstate New York, Virginia, Iowa, and Long Island.
A run-off election has been set up for the last seat remaining in the lower chamber as none of Georgia’s candidates received a majority of votes. Georgia voters will hence choose between the top two vote-getters, incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and his contestant Herschel Walker, on December 6th.
If Republicans were to win this run-off, Democrats’ control of the Senate would not be altered. However, President Biden stated that “it’s just simply better” to win as it makes the Senate committee selection easier, and because “The bigger the numbers, the better.”
Overall, these midterm results were not as unsatisfactory as was predicted for Biden’s party. Senator Lindsey Graham confirmed that Republicans did not perform as well as predicted by the polls, and that these midterms were “definitely not a Republican wave, that is for darn sure.”
Some may even posit that President Biden actually did particularly well compared to his predecessors. In fact, no incumbent president has received such suitable midterm results since George W Bush in 2002. Successful results were also accompanied by a high voter turnout, as 46.9% of US citizens filled out their ballot.
Nonetheless, the Democrat President should remain vigilant as his approval ratings remain significantly low. A Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that only 37% of US citizens were approving of Biden’s job as Head of State, which is “edging closer to the lowest level of his presidency”.
According to The Guardian, “In many ways the Democrats’ performance looked more like the result of a vote against Republican extremism than a vote of confidence in Mr Biden’s party.” As such, the midterm elections results should not be interpreted as a wave of support for the sitting President, but instead as a strong reflection of America’s key concerns: high rates of inflation and threats to abortion rights.