After having lost the Senate to the Democrats, the Republican Party still hopes for a win in the House of Representatives. But the race is tight.
While President Joe Biden flies to Bali for the G20 summit, the Midterm elections keep going back at home. During the weekend, Biden’s Democratic Party snatched an important victory at the Senate, retaining control of at least one chamber of Congress.
So far, Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate, enough to reach a majority. Even if the Republican Party manages to get 50 seats for themselves, the tie-breaker vote is a prerogative of the Vice-President, who is Democratic. And if the 6th of December Georgia ballots go in the Democrats favor, they might have 51/100 seats, one more than in the last elections.
The Republican Party, however, is in a good spot to win the House of Representatives, even if with a slight majority. To obtain a majority in the House, a party needs 218 seats, and the Republicans have already secured 212 of them.
The last few districts that are still counting votes are not seeing an overwhelming Republican majority, so everything could change at the last minute. Southern and Central California seem to be the last beacon of hope for Republicans, but even there the race is unbelievably tight.
In the 13th district, for example, Republicans are winning by barely 84 votes, and only 61% of the ballots have been counted. In the districts where Republicans are winning the majority is so slim that are absolutely impossible to predict.
At the moment, however, Republicans only need 6 new districts to win the House. In the 2020 elections, Democrats won the House with a 2 seats majority (220), and they already lost 8 seats that voted for Democrats before. So, it is very likely that Republicans will win the House of Representatives.
What do these elections mean for Democrats
As President Joe Biden pointed out on Twitter, his party has lost fewer seats in the House than any Democratic president in 40 years. They also won one more Governor than in 2020.
This Midterm election shows that the American people have not completely lost faith in Joe Biden. Even though Republicans feel he did not handle inflation well enough, Joe Biden managed to win over the public on other issues.
27% of voters defined abortion rights as their top issues, particularly relevant in the wake of the Roe v. Wade overturn by the Supreme Court. Abortion is still popular in the United States, and this compelled Democratic voters to show up and support Joe Biden.
With Democratic win in the Senate, now Biden can appoint Supreme Court judges without fear of Congress in his way. Furthermore, he will have much less opposition when passing laws important to him as he’ll have to sway only one Chamber.
Republicans, however, can still block some of Biden’s decisions with their majority in the House. That is, if they manage to get one.
