The final verdict turned out to be a tie between the opposing ideologies of the country. Although the gap between Democrats and Republicans also widened.
Although the Democrats managed to retake control of the House of Representatives, winning the 23 seats so far, the day was not the “blue wave” they expected .
In the Senate, the Republicans added seats to their majority, at the time when Republican senators in danger of being ousted in the states of Indiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas managed to maintain themselves thanks to a strong campaign that President Trump made to your favor
The elections leave a divided Congress with a House of Representatives in the hands of the Democratic Party – something that has not happened since 2010 – and a Senate in which the Republican Party has expanded its majority.
The governorships of 36 states were also in dispute, 26 of which were in republican hands.
Although the Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum failed in his attempt to become the first governor of Florida of black race, the democrats managed to seize the government of six states : Wisconsin, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Illinois and New Mexico.
In Georgia, meanwhile, where Democrat Stacey Abrams aspired to be the first female black governor in the state, her attempt to defeat Trump’s conservative and ally, Brian Kemp, seems to have fallen short.
Abrams refused to give up, amid several allegations of irregularities in polling stations that affected mainly the African-American electorate.
While Donald Trump was not on the ballot, these elections were presented as a referendum on his work as president of the country.
Judging by the president’s reaction on Twitter, Trump feels vindicated:
“Great success tonight! Thank you all,” Trump wrote.
However, as of the month of January, it will have a Democratic House of Representatives in front of it that can curb a large part of its agenda.
In the opinion of the BBC journalist Anthony Zurcher, “the partisan trenches of the United States deepen . “
Ambivalent feelings
The electoral appointment on Tuesday left reasons for joy and concern for both parties.
In the Republican Party, the victories of Ron DeSantis as governor and Rick Scott as senator in Florida, the triumph of Ted Cruz in Texas beating the Democratic star Beto O’Rourke or the clear advantage of Brian Kemp against Stacey Abrams in the race by the government of Georgia are seen as the great successes of the day.
For its part, the Democratic Party celebrates the large number of seats recovered in the House of Representatives and the arrival ofrepresentatives of different minorities to positions of power in Congress and in some governorates.
Another milestone left by these elections is that as of January there will be a record number of women in the House of Representatives.
Analysis by Luis Fajardo, BBC
The preliminary results of the mid-term US elections begin to make several points clear.
1. The most obvious result: the country is more divided than ever . After two years in power, Trump has returned to get massive support from a part of the country, mostly rural, white and conservative. The other half of the country, urban, multicultural and liberal, also went out to vote massively against it. There is no clear winner in this election.
2. With the Democrats taking the House of Representatives, this impressive polarization will be reflected in American institutions. Trump will not be able to pass a single new law of importance in the remainder of his term until the presidential election of 2020, as the Democrats will block any initiative in the congress.
3. But neither did the Democratic dream of a “blue wave” materialize , a kind of democratic counter-revolution against the Trump administration. In that sense, the elections wasn’t a full accomplishment for US liberalism.
4. Facing the presidential elections of 2020 , the signs point to a very competitive election. Trump continues to unleash the wrath of half the country, but continues to be an electoral locomotive despite two years of staunch opposition from the Democrats.
5. With a Democratic House, the number ofinvestigations against Trump pushed forward by the legislature in the next two years will be overwhelming, which will make the pace of government of the White House occupier even more chaotic.
6. In certain traditionally republican parts of the country, there seems to be a gradual movement towards the Democratic Party . Texas seems to be the most notorious case. In the second largest state in the country, Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke managed to mount a serious competition for Republican Ted Cruz, something that a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Even with a tight defeat, O’Rourke seems to have shown that Texas is already a battlefield, not an exclusive preserve of Republicans.
7. The Republican hegemony of Miami, which for many years was the most powerful political machine of Latinos in the United States, has been badly hurt. Two of the three Cuban Republicans who represented Miami in the House lost the election . The Miami anomaly seems to give in and match what is happening in the rest of the country, where the majority Hispanic areas vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats.
8. Donald Trump remains unstoppable in rural areas of the country and in the conservative south of the United States. Also, importantly, several candidates who followed him won in the ” m idwest ” zone , the industrial heart of the country, the same area that gave him the presidency in 2016. What leads us to predict, once again, that the Trump’s phenomenon is in good health, and his candidate will be more than willing to seek reelection in 2020.
Reaction of the White House
“We are very comfortable where we are,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told conservative Fox News.
Sanders urged voters to pay attention to the contests in which Trump intervened with campaign rallies, including his participation in Tennessee where Republican Marsha Blackburn won.
Sanders predicts that this Wednesday “a large part of the credit goes to the president, who campaigned for them . “
The spokeswoman also credited Trump for helping to secure Republican Mike Braun’s Senate victory in Indiana by holding a campaign event there.
The big issues
Health and immigration care followed by the economy and arms control.
The Republicans aspired to maintain control of the two chambers in order to boost President Trump’s agenda in the second half of his term in these and other key issues.
Now, with a Democratic House and a Republican US Senate It will still be harder to govern.
What was voted
In these elections the 435 seats of the House of Representatives were renewed , as well as 35 of the 100 seats of the Senate.
They also voted for the governors of 36 of the 50 states and their respective local congresses.
Some 40 million voters cast their votes in advance , according to the calculations of the US Elections Project, University of Florida.
In 2014, the anticipated vote was only 27.5 million.
These elections are known as mid-term elections because they are celebrated in the middle of the president’s four-year term.
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