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United States midterm election. Midterm elections in the United States are the general elections that are held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office, on Election Day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Federal offices that are up for election during the midterms include all 435 seats in the United States ...
- 2022 United States Elections
The 2022 United States elections were held on November 8,...
- Midterm election
Elections. Apart from general elections and by-elections,...
- 2022 United States Elections
- Overview
- Power shifts
- Notable midterm elections
- Redistricting’s role in midterm elections
United States midterm elections, general elections that occur every four years in the middle of the U.S. presidential term. The election process mandated by Article I of the United States Constitution, by which all members of the United States House of Representatives and roughly a third of the members of the U.S. Senate are on the ballot, occurs every two years. (Currently, the House of Representatives has 435 members, and the Senate has 100.) Midterm elections get their name because they occur halfway through a president’s four-year term. In addition to elections for members of Congress, 36 states hold their gubernatorial elections during the midterm cycle. Many local races and citizen-generated initiatives also can appear on midterm ballots.
In general, fewer Americans vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. Whereas about 60 percent of eligible voters typically cast ballots in presidential election years, that percentage falls to about 40 percent for midterms. (Voter turnout in the 2018 midterm elections was 50 percent, the highest since 1914. Turnout for the 2022 midterms was estimated at 47 percent.)
Historically, midterm elections have played pivotal roles in power shifts between political parties, with the party of the incumbent president often being handed a sound defeat. Pres. Barack Obama called the 2010 midterm elections in which the Democratic Party lost 64 seats in the House and six in the Senate “a shellacking.” That was, in fact, wors...
In the 1946 midterm elections, with Democratic Pres. Harry S. Truman completing the fourth term of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrats lost 56 seats in the House and 12 Senate seats. That gave the Republican Party control of both houses of Congress, and they promptly stymied many of Truman’s legislative initiatives. In the 1948 presidential election, Truman campaigned against the “do-nothing Congress” and won.
The 1994 midterm elections earned the moniker “the Republican Revolution” as the Republican Party gained 54 House and eight Senate seats to take control of both houses for the first time since 1953. The elections, which led to Rep. Newt Gingrich being chosen as speaker of the House, were seen as a backlash against the first two years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, which included failed efforts to change the health care system and a scandal-plagued search for an attorney general.
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The number of seats in the House of Representatives is set by law at not more than 435, but every 10 years, when the U.S. Census Bureau conducts its count of the population, the number of seats assigned, or apportioned, to states can change. For example, the 2020 census showed that the populations of Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas grew. Texas gained two representatives while the other states gained one. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia each lost one seat because their populations shrank. The 2022 midterm elections are the first national elections to be held since the changes resulting from the census were implemented.
These changes in population often require the redrawing of congressional districts. In many states, legislatures draw the district maps, and that gives enormous power to the party in control to create maps that benefit their political party. Sometimes the result is very oddly shaped districts manufactured by a process known as gerrymandering. The term comes from Elbridge Gerry, who, as governor of Massachusetts, signed a bill that created a district in the shape of a salamander that favoured his party. Often, the result of gerrymandering violates the spirit of the role of the census in legislative redistricting, which is to ensure fair representation. In the modern political system, both the Democratic and Republican parties have engaged in gerrymandering.
- Tracy Grant
Nov 15, 2022 · The House of Representatives remains undecided, but Democrats have retained control of the Senate. See all our US midterms 2022 coverage. Antonio Voce, Seán Clarke, Niels de Hoog and Anna Leach ...
- Antonio Voce
Midterm elections always occur two years after a presidential election. First midterms vs. second midterms Because the president was limited to two terms in office by the passage of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1951, two types of midterm elections are now possible: those that occur during a president's first term in office and ...
Nov 2, 2022 · The Senate, which is now at a 50-50 deadlock but is controlled by Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris casts the tiebreaking vote, has 100 members, with two from each of the 50 states ...
