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Archive photoDemocrats Regain House And Senate Control After Voters Cite War On Iran And High Prices
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Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate in midterms. Voters cited high prices and the Iran war as key election drivers.
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Outlets did split on Democrats Regain Control of Both Houses as Kisha Lance Bottoms Wins Georgia Governorship →
Midterms flip Congress
Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday’s historic midterm elections, a comeback fueled largely by voter anger over high prices and the war on Iran. A Harris poll found that 76% of voters told a Harris poll that elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people, and a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 63% of Americans considered it inappropriate for Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency.
Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said, “Congress needs to do oversight not just on the administration’s corruption.” Sherman also argued that the next Congress should focus on accountability and affordability, saying, “If this election was about corruption and cost, then this next Congress needs to be focused on accountability and affordability.”
War on Iran becomes leverage
Democrats’ victory could open a new front of opposition to Donald Trump on foreign policy, with lawmakers able to use their power to limit Trump’s decisions and condition the funding of military operations. Rafael Bernal told France 24 that “Democratic control of the two chambers will add political and financial pressure to Trump’s Iran war,” linking pressure to resolutions and budget negotiations.
The Conversation described how Democrats could try to force an end to the war against Iran, but it warned that “these “concurrent resolutions” are generally considered nonbinding,” and that Trump ignored a joint resolution in June. The Conversation also said Congress’s “power of the purse” could require that “every new dollar the War Department in Trump wants to spend must be approved by the House and the Senate.”
State power and next fights
Democrats gained hundreds of seats in state legislatures across the United States in Tuesday’s midterm elections, and Democrats haven’t won full control of government in Arizona in 60 years, in Pennsylvania since the 1990s, and in Wisconsin since their wipeout in 2010. Mandara Meyers, the executive director of the States Project, said, “This was the most significant night for state legislative power since the seismic Republican wave in 2010,” and she tied the result to a “fundamentally new legislative playing field.”
Democrats have gained 258 state legislative seats nationwide, created six new governing trifectas, claimed 11 legislative chambers from the GOP and broken Republican supermajorities in 10 states. In a separate account of the political fallout, WRAL said Trump acknowledged the Iran war affected the midterms and quoted him saying, “The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it,” as Democrats prepared oversight and investigations into Trump and his administration.