Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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The Democrats made a significant comeback on Capitol Hill in Tuesday’s midterm congressional election as they took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, winning at least 220 of its 435 seats. They had 193 seats in the House. The Republicans, however, expanded their thin majority in the Senate, winning against incumbent Democrats in Indiana, North Dakota and Missouri, all States in Trump country. The GOP is expected to expand its presence in the Senate as more results come in. As this report goes to press, they have 51 seats compared to the Democrats’ 45 in the 100-member chamber. The results paint a picture of an America that is split. Divisions that were apparent during and after the 2016 presidential election seem to have persisted and perhaps grown — the House results indicate a repudiation of President Donald Trump’s policies and politics. Bitter battle In the run-up to November 6, Mr. Trump had focussed his campaign on fears around a caravan of migrants approaching the U.S. through Mexico, labelled much of the media as the “enemy of the people” and warned his support base of Democrats raising taxes. Some of his comments against black Democrats, including in the Georgia and Florida gubernatorial candidates, had racist overtones. The opposition to his Presidency did not, however, go quite as far as the Democrats had hoped — the Republican majority expanding in the Senate and the GOP sharing the wins of a set of key Governor races suggest that support for Mr. Trump still runs strong. The Democrats, supported by women, younger voters and minorities, won big in suburban districts, which Mr. Trump carried in 2016. In West Virginia, a Trump stronghold, Democrat Joe Manchin III was re-elected as Senator and in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA operative, beat incumbent Dave Brat, a House Freedom Caucus member and Tea Party (a conservative movement) activist.
