Midterm Recap

Joe Biden delivered a speech in the weeks leading up to the midterms in which he labeled “MAGA Republicans” as a threat to democracy. Regardless of the validity of this claim, his statements reflect a common political strategy of “upping the stakes” to energize voters in what, typically, is a low turnout cycle.

Usually, the midterm elections are sleepy affairs. Yet, in the hyper-partisan political climate. we’re in, sleepy elections don’t feel possible anymore. In the build-up to the election, Republicans hammered Democrats (who controlled congress at the time) over issues like the economy and crime. Democrats responded by attacking Republicans over their anti-democratic rhetoric and abortion policies. The cumulative spending for this election cycle was an eye-watering $16.7 billion (Giorno and Quist). 

And the results of all the fierce campaigning? Very few changes at the federal level.

Due to sky-high inflation, many experts were expecting a “red wave” of sorts, where the Republicans regained the House of Representatives and contested the Senate. This never fully materialized.

Democrats have held onto the Senate and the Republicans won back the house, but neither side won’t have much of a majority.

As a result, the federal government will operate more or less in a similar fashion that it has been for the past 2 years. With the slim lead they hold, moderate democrats will wield strong negotiating power in the Senate, leading to some action that complies with the Democrats’ agenda, but is less ambitious than some would hope. The ultra-slim majority in the house (221 for a 218 majority) means that Republicans will struggle to get most of their plans through as well. Hopefully, this leads to more negotiations across party lines, but realistically we’re looking at political gridlock at the federal level. 

Here in Massachusetts, we elected Maura Healy as our new governor, who has centered her campaign around environmental legislation and social justice. With the approval of ballot questions, taxes on millionaires increase, dental insurance companies are forced to spend a majority of their revenue on patient care, and undocumented immigrants can receive driver's licenses. Generally, we reelected incumbents to represent us at the state and federal levels. 

Ultimately, the US government was intentionally designed with a series of checks and balances preventing one side from gaining too much power. This makes rapid and sudden changes extremely difficult. At the federal level, a partisan stalemate will mean anything but spending bills will have difficulty going through. At the state level, the Democrats further cement their overwhelming majority in Beacon Hill, so as dull as it sounds, we shouldn’t expect to see any drastic changes in our day-to-day lives. 

Works Cited:

Giorno, Taylor, and Peter Quist. “Total Cost of 2022 State and Federal Elections Projected to Exceed $16.7 Billion.” OpenSecrets News, 21 Nov. 2022, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/total-cost-of-2022-state-and-federal-elections-projected-to-exceed-16-7-billion/.

Stephens, Bret. “With Malice toward Quite a Few.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/opinion/biden-speech-maga-republicans.html.

Election results were provided by the Associated Press. You can learn more about their methodology here: https://www.ap.org/about/our-role-in-elections/