Trump likely facing a divided Congress
Democratic challengers have unseated Republicans in at least 17 closely watched House races, moving the party closer to its longsought goal of recapturing control of the House, according to projections based on exit polls and early returns from Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Republicans, however, will retain control of the U.S. Senate — and may even increase their majority, after winning closely-fought races in Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
Democrats won races in several Republican-held seats, in states from Florida to Kansas. That moved them closer to taking the House majority for the first time since 2011, when the “tea party” wave swamped
Democrats in President Barack Obama’s first midterm elections.
In victory, Democrats regained some of the confidence — although less of the power — they lost in 2016, when Trump won a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton. In this election, they sought to energize groups that Clinton did not: young voters, Latinos, African Americans and infrequent voters.
They were helped by an inadvertent spokesman: Trump himself. The first two chaotic years of his administration - marked by staff turnover, a torrent of falsehoods, and insults toward immigrants, U.S. allies and the news media — unified a Democratic Party that had fractured between center and left. The result was a huge increase in turnout, in part from voters who had never voted before.
By winning the House, Democrats will gain a powerful new pedestal to investigate Trump’s administration, his personal finances, and the hotels, golf courses and other businesses he still owns. They are also likely to press for details about the 2016 election, asking whether Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government’s efforts to sow misinformation and pro-Trump messages.
But, even in victory, Democrats saw the limits of their coalition — as Republicans snuffed out Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate. Indeed, the GOP seemed likely to increase its majority, by holding on to key seats in Texas and Tennessee and winning Democrat-held seats in North Dakota and Indiana.
So Democrats got the House, but did not get what they’d hoped for: a full rejection of Trump, who has governed with an unusual chaotic style, and who closed out this campaign with a torrent of falsehoods, and a demonization of immigrants and the news media. In many places, it appeared, Trump’s approach was enough - making it unclear what divided government might look like, with such a cultural gulf between the two houses Congress.
At about 10 p.m. Eastern time, Democrats had won Republicanheld seats in Florida, Virginia, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New York and Minnesota. Among the victors: Jennifer Wexton, who unseated Rep. Barbara Comstock in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, District of Columbia, and Sharice Davids, who won a GOP-held seat in Kansas. Davids, a former mixed martial-arts fighter, will be the first Native American woman to serve in Congress.
In Virginia, Comstock had been seen as one of the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbents, representing a swath of suburbia that had voted heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. But the scale of her defeat was still notable: With 67 percent of precincts reporting, she was down by 17 percentage points.
Anecdotal reports from around the country indicated that turnout was far above the levels from other recent midterms — and, in some cases, even approaching the levels from the 2016 presidential election.
Earlier on Tuesday, new polling showed that voters cited Trump and health care as two of the most important factors as they chose their candidates in the midterm election, according to preliminary results from a Washington Post-Schar School survey of battleground districts. About 4 in 10 of those surveyed said one of those topics — Trump or health care — was among the two most important issues in their vote.
The economy and immigration were close behind, with roughly one-third saying each was one of the top two issues in their vote. Just over one-fifth said taxes was one of the top issues, followed by Supreme Court appointments. Fewer than 1 in 10 voters said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D Calif., — who could become the speaker if Democrats win control of the House — was one of the biggest factors in their vote.
“In some places, Trump was even more important to voters. In Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, where Comstock was projected to be defeated, 56 percent of voters said Trump was one of the two most important factors in their vote.