On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Democrats won control of the House of Representatives — and, with it, the ability to check President Trump’s power.
Republicans, however, performed strongly among the group of Senate seats up that were on the ballot, and expanded their majority in the chamber.
Now that Democrats have won the House, Republicans will no longer be able to pass legislation with GOP votes alone — instead, to get any bills through Congress, Trump will have to spar with Democrats. The new Democratic majority will also have subpoena power, which will help them investigate the Trump administration far more aggressively.
But since Democrats did not take the Senate, they did not gain the power to block Trump’s Supreme Court, Cabinet, and other nominees for the next two years. So Trump will continue to have the upper hand in confirming judges to lifetime posts.
Ultimately, the midterm election results were a mixed bag for Democrats who were buoyed by hope of a “blue wave,” but still saw key wins in governors races, state legislatures, and critical ballot initiatives.
The bizarre allegations of ballot tampering in one of 2018’s closest House elections
A campaign volunteer for Dan McCready, the Democratic candidate in North Carolina’s Ninth District. AFP/Getty ImagesNorth Carolina election officials have declined to certify the winner of the state’s Ninth Congressional District election, after allegations were made suggesting absentee ballots may have been tampered with.
Elections officials and Democrats have been careful not to allege any specific wrongdoing so far. But the allegations suggest some kind of scheme, undertaken by people supporting the GOP campaign, to influence the results of an election ultimately decided by less than 1,000 votes.
Read Article >Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith wins Mississippi Senate election
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith stands on stage with President Donald Trump at a rally in Southaven, Mississippi. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesSen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) defeated Democrat Mike Espy in Tuesday’s Mississippi special Senate election. She will finish retired Sen. Thad Cochran’s current term through 2020, after being appointed to replace him earlier this year.
Hyde-Smith is the first woman to be elected to represent Mississippi in the Senate. It was an unimpressive win for the Republican — with the vote count nearly finished, she led Espy by 8 points, after Donald Trump won Mississippi by 18 in 2016 — but a win nonetheless.
Read Article >Live results for the Mississippi Senate election
The midterm elections are over. Mississippi freshman GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democratic challenger Mike Espy in the year’s final Senate election, a runoff that gives Democrats one last sliver of hope for a shocking 2018 upset.
Results, powered by Decision Desk HQ, are below.
Read Article >Trump’s attack on the Florida recounts is an attack on American democracy
Trump at a November 7 press conference. Al Drago/Pool/Getty ImagesPresident Trump decided, on Monday morning, to advance a conspiracy theory about forged ballots in Florida on Twitter. Now political scientists who study authoritarian states and elections are sounding the alarm, warning that this kind of rhetoric imperils the health of American democracy.
Trump’s tweet alleges that someone, presumably Democrats, is cheating during the recounts currently underway in Florida. This is not true, but the recounts do threaten to reverse the very narrow leads currently held by the Republican candidates for governor (Ron DeSantis) and Senate (Rick Scott). This seems to have made the president upset enough to allege fraud.
Read Article >Democrat Kyrsten Sinema widens lead in Arizona Senate race
Republican Rep. Martha McSally (left) and Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Christian Petersen/Getty ImagesAs of Friday evening, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema had widened her lead on Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the exceedingly close Arizona Senate race — though counties across the state are still working their way through more than 300,000 ballots that have yet to be counted.
The Arizona secretary of state published an update for the closely watched Senate race on Friday — putting Sinema ahead by just over 20,000 votes. She had previously led by about 9,000 votes as of Thursday night.
Read Article >Would ex-felon voting rights have flipped Florida for Democrats? It’s possible.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFlorida voted on Tuesday to approve a constitutional amendment that will restore voting rights to more than 1 million people with felony records. The state also appears narrowly set to send Republicans to the governor’s mansion and the US Senate — both major upsets for Democrats.
The results have led to a question: What if people convicted of felonies, covered under the newly passed Amendment 4, had voting rights for this election? Could they have tipped the election in Democrats’ favor?
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Li Zhou and Emily Stewart
Here are the governor seats Democrats have flipped so far in the 2018 elections
Gretchen Whitmer has flipped a Michigan governor’s seat. Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesDemocrats have long been underrepresented in governorships across the country, and they’re hoping that could change this year.
While they saw some high-profile losses in Ohio and Florida, numbers certainly suggest they could still make some inroads: Going into the election, there were 26 Republican-held seats and nine Democratic ones up for contention. According to Cook Political Report, at least 13 of the existing Republican seats were either toss-ups or prime targets for Democrats to flip.
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