Election night was exciting. The night started with people thinking Republicans were going to defy all expectations of political gravity. By the time the night was over, it looked sort of like what most people predicted.
The most important thing was historic voter turnouts. About 113 million people voted, around 48% of eligible voters. That is up from 83 million votes in 2014. The voter turnout is actually more comparable to the presidential elections in 2016 with 138.8 million voters. Overall, we believe that the historic midterms will leave a positive effect on the United States.
Whether it’s the new balance of power with the House, the widening Senate gap, or the impressive number of women and races in Congress, the midterms proved interesting to say the least.
It was predicted that Democrats would win 45 seats, turned out they won 34. It was also predicted that Republicans would pick up 2-4 seats in the Senate, which they did. This has lead to a lot of puzzlement, how could the Republicans lose the House, but pick up seats in the Senate?
The math was uniquely bad for Democrats this time around in the Senate. Republicans did over perform, and yes President Trump had something to do with that. President Trump visited a bunch of battleground states in hotly contested Senate races, and every place he visited, that candidate won.
President Trump has a unique gift for getting the base revved up, particularly in close Senate elections that do matter.
So he does have coattails when it comes to getting the base out, he does have reverse coattails however, when it comes to House races. Virtually every purple seat that was contested, every seat in the suburban district that Republicans held, went to Democrats last night. That is deeply troubling for Republicans. However, a Democratic house is overall good for the country, as it will limit some of the executive power in the country.
More locally, Senator Tim Kaine won big over Republican candidate Corey Stewart. Personally, we have never agreed with Tim Kaine in the past, and I doubt I will in the future. However, he is the representative Virginians selected. As expected, Northern Virginia went completed Democratic, with Gerry Connolly and Jennifer Wexton winning in Districts 10 and 11.
The good news for Republicans is that the ‘beloved’ campaigns of candidates Beto O’Rourke of Texas and Andrew Gilliam of Florida came to an end. Beto O’Rourke had spent more money than God has, $70 million, and still lost his race.
All that said Beto O’Rourke and other candidates still lost their campaigns after spending tons of money.
On top of that, Andrew Gillum goes down in Florida, who was another person according to polls, was going to win. Ron DeSantis instead, comes from behind and snatches victory from what should have been a defeat. DeSantis and Scott will come up and prove why they’re great representatives for the state.
As days passed, it looked like the midterm results were not all in and recounts have taken place. Florida and Arizona are both states in which the GOP have achieved big victories on the night of the elections.
However in the following days, thousands of mysterious votes began to appear in mostly Democratic leaning areas and the Democrats demanded a recount.
This seems just a bit fishy and it brings up the question to what is actually going on.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted out, “Now democrat lawyers are descending on #Florida. They have been very clear they aren’t here to make sure every vote is counted; They are here to change the results of the election and #Broward is where they plan to do it.”
The Democrats basically confirmed this in a press conference where they said they aren’t just here to recount, they’re here to win.
I don’t believe anyone has a problem with the recounts taking place, the problem lies with them focusing just on two counties. Bay County got hit by a category 4 hurricane four weeks prior to the elections and they still had a 52% voter turnout and got all the ballots in on time.
Broward County wasn’t hit by a catastrophic hurricane or anything of the sorts, so people don’t see a reason to why counting is still taking place 48 hours later.
Another problem is the amount of votes that have happened. They don’t know how many votes they have gotten and neither do we. How many ballots are left to count? They won’t make a mention of it and tell nobody. Results still came up with a Rick Scott victory however, and it appears the Democratic candidate is now leading in Arizona.
There was no “blue wave,” if there was, the Senate would be under democratic control, which it isn’t. In governor elections, Republicans won big as well in Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, all blue states that were supposed to win those races.
The Republicans defied most expectations and actually grew their majority in the Upper House, which has not been a common occurrence in the past 100 years. The loses in the House were a lot less historical than what people predicted as well.