At this midpoint between the 2020 presidential election and the subsequent vote in 2024, all seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for election.
The US midterm election results are anticipated in the upcoming hours, and polls suggest that president Joe Biden will have a rough night as the Democrats appear to lose control of Congress.
At the midpoint between the 2020 presidential election and the subsequent vote in 2024, the full House of Representatives and a third of the Senate were up for re-election on Tuesday.
According to polls, Republicans have a strong chance of taking control of the House and even the Senate. The first results from important states are expected in the ensuing hours, overnight into Wednesday, however control of the Senate may rest on a few close contests that may not be decided for several days.
Along with the congressional campaigns, 36 states are choosing governors, whose decisions on matters like abortion and electoral security will be crucial.
On a national level, the Democrats focused their campaign on the challenges to democracy posed by a Republican field dominated by Trump backers and against efforts to restrict access to abortion.
In the meantime, the Republicans had aimed to capitalize on voter resentment of Joe Biden as well as the country’s problems with inflation and crime.
In spite of the fact that Democrats have had the Presidency, the House, and the Senate under their nominal control for the past two years, Mr. Biden has seen most of his legislative priorities severely curtailed by a small group of centrist Democratic Senators who sided with Republicans to allow the filibustering of dozens of bills.
While this was going on, a conservative-dominated Supreme Court handed right-wingers a number of successes and dealt the Biden administration a number of setbacks, most notably when it overturned the right to access abortion in a contentious June decision by tossing out 50 years of precedent.
The midterm elections on Tuesday will be the first significant elections since Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the outcome of the 2020 presidential election erupted into violence. It will also be the first time that the contentious new voter laws implemented in several Republican-controlled states will be put to the test.
Far-right militia groups with guns have been accused of harassing voters at voting places, and experts have expressed alarm about ‘election deniers’ infiltrating the vote-counting process. Before the polls closed on Tuesday, there was controversy over a Republican governor’s refusal to let federal observers inside his state’s voting locations. That governor was Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Even though the next presidential election isn’t scheduled until November 2024, the contest officially gets underway when the midterm elections are over, with candidates from both parties often trying to gain an advantage.
Whether Joe Biden, 79, decides to run for re-election is still up in the air. If he doesn’t, there isn’t a clear front-runner for the Democratic candidacy because other so-called “rising stars” lack the qualifications to run for president and vice president Kamala Harris has similarly low popularity ratings.
Rumors have been circulating on the Republican side that Donald Trump, 76, may announce his third run for the president in the coming days. If he decides not to run, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a divisive figure who has fought in the “culture wars” over immigration and LGBT+ issues, may be in the lead.
When asked if he intended to declare his candidacy for president in 2024, Mr. Trump responded, “I believe Tuesday will be a very exciting day for a lot of people.”
