Mid-term elections: "An unprecedented moment in American history"

In 2014, turnout in the US midterm elections reached an all-time low. Less than 42% of the voters showed up for the vote, which takes place right between two presidential elections, and in which all the members of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and several positions at the state level are elected. Four years later, in President Donald Trump’s midterm elections, that number jumped to 53.4%, according to the US Census Bureau.

Brandon Conradis, Political News Page Election Campaign Writer The Hilland former news writer at DW, thinks that, also this year, many American voters will participate in the elections on November 8.

“From pre-voting data, we see that the turnout is likely to be significantly higher than it usually is in a midterm election,” Conradis told DW. the country right now.”

In 2022, the United States is a highly polarized country. The reactions to the annulment made by the Supreme Court of Justice of the ruling Roe vs. Wade, which guaranteed the constitutional right to legal abortion throughout the country, was a clear sign of the gap that separates the left from the right. Liberals were horrified because they felt a basic right had been taken away from them. The Conservatives were elated and celebrated the decision as a great victory. This strong polarization can be a driver for voter turnout, because both sides are eager to prevent the other from gaining even an inch (or seat) in the race for power.

Democratic voters in states where officials are elected this year want to make sure it’s not a Republican governor who decides whether or not pregnant women have legal access to abortions. And Republican voters, fearful of a recession, blame the president Joe Biden of the current economic problems, and they hope that the Republican politicians can change something.

“Inflation, the economy and crime are really big factors for conservative voters right now. Those are the big issues and talking points for their candidates,” Laura Merrifield Wilson, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, told DW. of Indianapolis. “For Democrats, abortion is taking up most of the campaign.”

In addition, Wilson added, Democratic voters are also concerned that, after the abortion ruling, the Supreme Court could also look at other issues of social importance, as well as perhaps restrict gay rights in similar ways.

If the Democrats lose control of one of the two chambers, that would make the second half of Joe Biden’s term more complicated than the first. Passing laws without a majority in Congress would be much more difficult.

But aside from the usual question of “who will get the House and the Senate,” there is one issue that makes this midterm election different from “any other before it,” according to Wilson. Several Republican candidates openly support the claim of donald trump – now completely refuted – that the 2020 election was “stolen”, and that he would have won had the results not been rigged.

One of these deniers is Kari Lake, a strong Trump supporter who is running for governor of Arizona. “Unfortunately, we had a stolen election, and we actually have an illegitimate president in the White House,” Lake said, quoted by public broadcaster PBS, on the campaign trail for the primaries in June 2022.

Republican Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem has also said he would not have signed off on Biden’s victory in Arizona, where the Democrat narrowly beat Trump, a fact confirmed by a recount.

In the US electoral system, it is generally the governor of a state who is in charge of organizing the electoral process and certifying the results of the elections. “It’s an election that Lake could really win, and that would really have an impact on the 2024 presidential elections,” she said in an interview with DW Jessica Taylor, a writer specializing in the Senate and state governments at the Cook Political Reporta non-partisan political newsletter that analyzes the US elections.

“If, as we hope, former President Trump tries to run again as a candidate, and if he has more friendly people in some of the ‘swing states,’ who may be willing to overturn the results or work with the state legislature to do so,” then things could turn out differently than they did in 2020, Taylor stressed.

Some candidates who do not recognize the current US government as legitimate are running for leadership positions. Conradis believes that factor contributes to the concern surrounding this mid-term election.

The journalist also emphasized that the country has never had so many candidates who openly deny that the man who occupies the White House chair got there fairly and honestly. “It seems that we are in an unprecedented moment in the history of the United States,” he concluded.