Midterm elections were held on November 8th, which meant that all 445 seats in the house of representatives and 35 seats of the senate were up for election. They’re called “midterm elections” because they’re in the middle of the president’s four-year run. This election was cast to be a landslide for republicans, but the promised “red wave” never materialized. 

Republicans won 8 new seats in the house of representatives while Democrats lost 9 seats, meaning that republicans have a narrow majority that will ensure they have the power to block legislation by the senate or president.  

Democrats still have a majority in the Senate, picking up a seat from the republicans. Though Georgia’s senate race ended close enough to warrant another run-off. 

In state elections, Democrats picked up 2 Governorships from the Republicans.

The results from the midterm election mean that this is a split congress. For those who don’t know what a split congress is, a split congress is when one party controls the executive branch, while the other party controls either one of both houses of the legislative branch. Democrats may control the presidency and senate, but their loss of the house means they will be unable to pass much legislation over the next 2 years. 

An interesting fact about the 2022 midterm elections is that Joe Biden had the best midterms of any president of the last 20 years, most of the time during midterm elections the opposing party takes control of both legislative branches.