Impact of the Midterm Elections

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, the midterm elections changed America’s political make-up for the next two years. Across America, Senators, Representatives, Governors and local politicians were elected to serve in various positions in our government.

Prior to the midterms, both the house and senate were controlled by Republicans. On Nov. 6, Democrats flipped the house, while Republicans retained control of the Senate. This creates a split congress, which could potentially lead to legislative gridlock.

Because bills must pass both the House and the Senate, controversial bills will have a hard time getting through congress. Legislation, such as repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, are now much less likely to be passed. Although this could lead to more bipartisan bills and reaching across the aisle, historically split congresses have caused the number of bills passed to decrease.

“For sure, because they’ll be conflicting with the president trying to get certain laws through but then being shot down by congress,” Kolton Schaap said, on if this split congress will have trouble getting laws passed.

With Democrats in control of the House, Mueller’s Russia investigation has come under more scrutiny. Democrats will be able to subpoena Mueller’s findings and begin an investigation in the House. This could potentially lead to the Democrats beginning the impeachment process for Trump. Some people believe that the reason Sessions, Trump’s attorney general, was asked to resign, was because of the Russia investigation. Democrats may also request Trump’s tax returns, and investigate Trump’s company for a conflict of interest.

Now that Democrats have control of the House, they will also have control of spending measures. This is because spending measures must originate in the House.

However, Republicans still have the power to do many things in the Senate. With the majority, they can approve treaties and confirm judges, including Supreme Court nominees, without the support of Democrats.

Many governor seats were also up for vote. In Oregon, Kate Brown was re-elected as governor. Governors elected this year will have control of their state’s redistricting in 2020. Redistricting occurs every 10 years and allows states to redraw the lines of their congressional districts. Historically redistricting has lead to people accusing the different parties of gerrymandering, or redrawing the lines in favor of their political party.

Nationally people have mixed feelings about the elections. Democrats were happy to gain the House and Republicans were happy to have kept the Senate. However, both parties were hoping for a better outcome and complete control of congress. Both parties also lost key races that they were hoping to win.

One thing that people on both sides of the aisle seem to come together on is the fact is that a recording breaking number of women are now members of congress. Historically, women have never held more than 84 seats in the House. As of Nov. 9, 100 women were elected as representatives. In total a record-breaking 277 women ran for congress and governor seats across the nation.

“I feel great, obviously! I mean it’s more representative and they are going to be focused on more issues that affect the populace of America, because women are included in the populace so we deserve fair representation in government.” Angelique Prater ‘19 said on how she felt about the historic number of women in congress.

Politicians are also more diverse now than ever before. In this past midterm, the first Muslim and Native American women were elected to congress. America’s first openly gay governor was elected in Colorado.

“I feel extremely proud and happy in the direction that our country is moving in. There are a lot of politically progressive people, especially young people, who are just coming of age to vote and I feel like that has an effect on who’s being elected.” Hunter Miller ‘21 said.

This election had the highest voter turnout for a midterm since 1966. More than 47 percent of the eligible voting population casted a vote, according to the United States Election Project. This means that more than 110 million Americans cast a ballot.