The mid-term elections are said to be a referendum on the success or failure of the incumbent president and his first two years in the White House.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating is under water, inflation is skyrocketing, and he makes a gaffe almost every time he opens his mouth, so the success of Democratic candidates makes no sense when the normal rules apply.
It makes no sense that five days after the election the Democrats have retained the Senate and have a slim chance of retaining the House of Representatives.
But it was not an ordinary election.
One way to explain this is by seeing it, instead, as a referendum on the far-right politics of “Make America Great Again” candidates recruited, in some cases, and supported by former President Donald Trump.
Take Adam Laxalt, the Republican defeated in the decisive Senate race in Nevada, a fully paid member of Trump’s electoral lie.
There was “no mathematical way” he could lose, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, perhaps forgetting to include a shrewd electorate in his equation.
Across the country and up and down the ballot papers – with few, but not many, exceptions – voters have scolded Trumpism.
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Biden: “The giant red wave didn’t happen”
From Mehmet Oz, a famous TV doctor beaten in Pennsylvania, to anti-abortionist Yesli Vega beaten in a key contest in Virginia, it wasn’t the red wave the Republican Party expected.
Perhaps it was also a referendum on the right to abortion.
In the spring, a decision by the conservative-majority Supreme Court to revoke the constitutional right to choose abortion changed the face of this election season.
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Abortion: 40 days in four rankings
With a flood of Republican lawmakers banning or severely restricting access to abortion, Democrats have seen their polls rise and have taken a calculated bet to focus their mid-term energy and advertising money on abortion.
We still don’t have a full picture of which voters were instrumental in swinging some key races, but Civic Youth Research Center estimates that 31% of young people voted in battlefield states.
In Nevada, the state that eventually handed over control of the Senate to Democrats, Civic Youth said 64 percent of young voters sided with the winner, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
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It was also significant that voters in Pennsylvania indicated that abortion was the issue that mattered most to them when they voted and nationally it was the second most vital issue, surpassed only by inflation.
It seems that on the right to abortion the Republicans had no contact with the people and the furious political energy aroused by the decision of the Supreme Court.
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But if President Biden is elated tonight, there may be a reality check in the coming days, as it is still highly likely that Republicans will take over the House of Representatives once the votes are finally counted.
This means that it may still be hampered by a political stalemate and legislative blocs.
The House may also investigate the conduct of President Biden in office and also the financial reports of his son, Hunter Biden, which they are likely to do.
