By: Johan Satorre
The US midterm elections on Tuesday was a big victory for the Democrats, but was not as large as they had hoped. Since the election of President Donald Trump, there has been widespread outrage from the Democratic party and they were hoping for a “Blue Wave” of changing seats.
As of the writing of the piece, 420 congressional seats have been declared: 223 Democratic and 197 Republican. For the first time since 2012, the Democrats have control of the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Republicans consolidated their control; 51 Republican vs 44 Democrats.
Voter turnout was a massive 47% this election. For comparison, the 2016 election had 58% and the previous midterm in 2015 had only 37%. This is the highest turnout for a midterm since 1966.
Locally, Senator Dianne Feinstein won a second term as California’s senior senator. Andrew Janz is projected to lose his race against Devin Nunes with Janz receiving 44% of the vote compared to Nunes’s 55%.
Despite the Democrats not gaining as much ground as they had hoped, they have secured the House of Representatives and now have the ability to oversee the president’s actions. Democrats will now have control over the house committees and the subpoena powers that goes with them.