Results of the 2018 Midterm Election
November 13, 2018
New Hampshire was hit with a blue majority wave during the midterm elections Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Republican candidate Chris Sununu was reelected governor. Sununu won by 52% over his Democratic opponent Molly Kelly and Libertarian opponent Jilletta Jarvis. For State Senate, New Hampshire elected 10 Republicans and 12 Democrats, including Chris Pappas who became the state’s first openly gay member of Congress. Democrats took the State House with 211 majority seats leaving Republicans with 141.
There was a large voter turnout this year estimating to about 113 million people, according to CBS News. There was also a 31% increase in young voters, ages 18 to 29, making it the highest young voter turnout in 25 years. As for the results on the national scale, all in all Republicans won the Senate with a 51 to 44 seat majority, while the Democrats took the House with a 225 to 197 seat majority.
But that’s not all, some are calling it ‘the year of the woman’ or ‘the rainbow wave’ as there were a lot of firsts in representation elected this time around. Angie Craig of Minnesota was elected to Congress as the state’s first lesbian mom while Massachusetts and Connecticut elected their first black female House of Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Johana Hayes. Jared Polis was elected as their first openly gay governor in Colorado, while Sharice Davids from Kansas and Debra Haaland from New Mexico were elected as the first Native American Congresswomen in their states. Texas elected their first Latina Congresswomen Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar. Also noteworthy, were the election of Ihan Omar from Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib from Michigan who became the first Muslim Congresswomen in their states. In total, 98 women were elected into office this year, setting a record to be the largest amount of women in Congress in the nation’s history.
So what will this mean for the future? According to the website Medium, these shifting demographics will bring greater representation to previously underrepresented groups, as well as broaden the meaning of leadership. For example, the state of Florida voted to extend voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences. That will add an extra 1.5 million citizens to the voting rosters which accounts for 40% of Florida’s black male population. The Republican majority in the Senate is expected to deepen the partisanship in Congress and intensify the polarization of politics in the capital. Meanwhile, the winning of the House by the Democrats means long-serving liberal members will chair important committees, giving them oversight of the legislative process.
Works Consulted
https://medium.com/@BUexperts/what-should-we-take-away-from-the-2018-midterm-elections-43916b7b2c69
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/record-voter-turnout-in-2018-midterm-elections/