2018 US Midterm Elections
The 2018 U.S. Midterm Elections, held on November 6, marked a pivotal moment in American politics, occurring halfway through President Donald Trump's first term. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, approximately one-third of the Senate, and many state governorships were contested. The elections were widely viewed as a referendum on Trump's presidency, resulting in significant gains for the Democratic Party, which secured a majority in the House by winning 40 seats and also claimed seven additional governorships. Notably, the elections saw an increase in voter turnout, particularly among women and minority groups, leading to historic achievements such as the election of the first openly gay governor and the first Native American and Muslim women in Congress.
The political landscape shifted with Nancy Pelosi resuming her role as Speaker of the House, signaling a new era of oversight and investigation into Trump's administration. Key issues during the election included opposition to Trump's policies on immigration and health care, as well as debates surrounding tax reforms and gun control. Overall, the 2018 Midterms underscored the heightened political engagement and diversity among candidates, setting the stage for ongoing political battles in the U.S. Congress.
2018 US Midterm Elections
Date: November 6, 2018
Place: United States
Summary
The 2018 midterm elections in the United States were held on November 6, 2018, halfway through the first term of President Donald Trump. At stake were all the seats in the House of Representatives, about a third of the seats in the Senate, and about two-thirds of state governorships. During the elections, which many commentators saw as a referendum on the Republican president, the Democrats gained forty seats for a majority in the House of Representatives, while the Republicans gained two seats to maintain their majority in the Senate. The Democrats also gained seven state governorships. The election was notable for having very high voter turnout for a midterm election, and for the large number of women and people from minority communities elected.
Key Events
- January 20, 2017—Inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States, with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress
- November 6, 2018—Election Day.
- January 3, 2019—New Congress is seated, with the Democrats controlling the House of Representatives and the Republicans controlling the Senate.
Status
On January 3, 2019, Democrat Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House, as Democrats took control of Congress’s lower chamber, setting up a confrontation with President Trump, whom they vowed to subject to a new level of congressional oversight based on his conduct before and after assuming office. The 2018 midterm elections saw an increase in the number of women in the House from 110 to 127, the election of the first openly gay governor in the United States in Colorado Democrat Jared Polis, as well as the election of the first two Native American women and the first two Muslim women to Congress. Among the freshman members of Congress, perhaps none made a bigger splash than New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who became the youngest woman to win election to the House at age twenty-nine. The young Democrat’s outspokenness in many ways embodied the defiant tone that characterized much of the opposition to Trump and the Republicans.
The ramifications of the Democratic takeover of the House became apparent almost immediately. The House Judiciary Committee under chair Jerrold Nadler and the House Intelligence Committee under chair Adam Schiff both launched investigations into whether Trump, his campaign, or his administration engaged in abuses of power, obstruction of justice, or collusion with Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
In-Depth Overview
Republican Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election on a platform of cutting both legal and illegal immigration and rolling back many of the achievements of outgoing Democratic president Barack Obama, including his health care reform plan and a host of regulatory measures. Trump also won vowing to get rid of “political correctness” in public discourse, and despite indications of past personal misconduct with women. As soon as Trump took office as president on January 20, 2017, those who opposed him and his policies began to formulate plans for the 2018 midterm elections. The very next day, well over 200,000 protestors gathered on the National Mall—the same site as the prior day’s inauguration—along with over three million more nationwide, to protest Trump and advocate for the empowerment of women. A month later another protest, the Day Without Immigrants, took place, with immigrants across the country staying home from work and school and declining to spend money, in response to Trump’s negative comments about immigrants and refugees. A year later, following the February 14, 2018, mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, hundreds of thousands of students and other protestors in Washington and across the country participated in the March for Our Lives, urging the president and members of Congress—largely ineffectively—to pass gun control legislation.
The repeated protests, Trump’s relatively low approval numbers (always hovering somewhere around 40 percent), and the strident tone of opposition from congressional Democrats led to predictions that in the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats had a good chance of regaining control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate.
The 2018 midterm elections were also significant because of the large number of women, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and LGBTQ candidates running for office, largely on the Democratic side. Though many of the campaigns focused largely on Trump—with, for the most part, Democrats roundly opposing him and Republicans pledging fealty to him—other issues emerged. The Republicans’ (unsuccessful) attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the ongoing battle over Trump’s demand for funding for a wall at the US-Mexico border became important themes. Another issue was the Republicans’ main legislative victory under Trump, the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Democrats derided as a tax cut greatly favoring the wealthy.
As election day neared, polls showed Democrats would have a difficult time winning control of the Senate, due to the fact that many of the seats up for reelection were in safe Republican states. In the end, Republicans added two seats to their slim majority, leaving the Senate with fifty-three seats for Republicans and forty-seven for Democrats. However, a spike in voter turnout allowed the Democrats to gain forty seats in the House of Representatives (plus a gain of one seat from a Pennsylvania special election in March). This gave them control of the House (by 235 seats to 199) and led California’s Nancy Pelosi to become Speaker of the House for the second time since 2011. Democrats also gained seven state governorships, bringing their total to twenty-three, versus twenty-seven Republicans.
Key Figures
Donald Trump: President of the United States (2017– ).
Nancy Pelosi: Speaker of the House of Representatives (2007–11, 2019– ).
Bibliography
Carroll, S. J., & Fox, R. L. (2018). Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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Samuels, B. (2019, March 3). House Democrats ramp up investigations of Trump. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/432383-dems-double-down-on-investigating-trump
Smith, A. (2018, November 6). In Senate midterm elections, Democrats fall short as Republicans retain control. NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/2018-senate-election-results-n932546
Sullivan, P. (2018, November 1). Democrats close campaign by hammering GOP on health care. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/414170-democrats-close-campaign-by-hammering-gop-on-healthcare
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Watkins, E. (2018, November 7). Women and LGBT candidates make history in 2018 midterms. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/historic-firsts-midterms/index.html