The Wound of Midterm Elections: Dem Dems and Optimism, and the Case of Blake Masters and Mark Biden

The House races have long made it hard to hold onto an already narrow majority. In the last week or so, Republicans have grown more aggressive in their spending targets, as they see a map that is growing better by the day.

For almost two decades, midterm elections have been a succession of partisan waves: for Democrats in 2006, Republicans in 2010 and 2014, and Democrats again in 2018. The outcome of the 2020 midterms will be determined by mail-in ballots, which appear to be atypical and give Democrats reason for optimism.

The push and pull between these competing priorities have been vividly displayed over the past week during the first flurry of general election Senate debates in states like Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona. During the televised Arizona meeting, Republican challenger Blake Masters came out strong and kept Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly on the defensive, by constantly linking him to Biden while the conversation initially focused on border security. But as the discussion shifted toward abortion and election integrity, Kelly clearly regained the momentum, as Masters struggled to explain his support during the GOP primary for a near total ban on abortion and his embrace of Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in 2020.

But another critical factor is that many of the voter groups that Democrats most rely upon are relatively less focused on the issues where public concerns about Biden’s performance are greatest, and more focused on issues where anxieties are greatest about the intentions of Republicans. “The blue team cares about abortion and democracy and the red team cares about crime and immigration and inflation,” says Whit Ayres, a long-time GOP pollster. There is at least some overlap on the inflation front. But we have become so polarized that the two different teams care about different things and are motivated by different things.”

The Supreme Court overturn of the right to abortion and a flurry of legislative victories by the Democrats are not what they used to be. Biden is in a political environment that is dark due to the high cost of living, and his hopes of a swift rebound next year are clouded by growing fears of a recession.

“In large part that’s why this election is super weird,” says Bryan Bennett, lead pollster for Navigator, a Democratic polling consortium. “People are having to make this trade-off between the immediate economic concerns [where]…they might blame the incumbent party in power. At the same time, they are aware that the same party will protect the fundamental human right on abortion.

The Economy is Not Set Yet: How Will Biden’s Electoral Campaign Revisited? An Analysis based on Marist

Nor is Biden’s own standing, even as White House officials point to approval ratings that have him running slightly ahead of where then-Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump were at this stage of their first term.

Two-thirds of Republicans’ votes in Congress went to people who focused mostly on inflation, as did more than two-fifths of conservatives who prioritized immigration, according to a detailed analysis of results provided by Marist. The Democrats attracted many people who advocated abortion or health care, and those who advocated preserving democracy.

Democrats are emphasizing rights and values, particularly abortion, while also warning about the threat to democracy posed by Trump and his movement. Since June, as CNN recently reported, Democratic candidates have spent over $130 million on abortion-themed ads, vastly more than Republicans.

Biden’s speech made a case that when they come to full fruition, his policies will repair decades of declines in manufacturing and American industry. He argued that his signature bills passed during a legislative hot streak, including a bipartisan infrastructure measure, a law meant to ignite US semiconductor production and another that builds a clean energy economy, would bring jobs and prosperity. He declared that his social spending measure passed over the summer would make Americans more prosperous since it would cut some long-term health care costs.

But those plant openings are mostly still in the future and only a few Democrats (such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Arizona Sen. Kelly, and Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan) are emphasizing those possibilities this year.

More commonly, Democrats are stressing legislation the party has passed that offers families some relief on specific costs, especially the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. Democratic pollster Geoff Garin says that highlighting such specific initiatives can allow individual candidates to overcome the negative overall judgment on Biden’s economic management. His main concern is that the Democrats focus too much on abortion when they should be talking about the economy.

The founder of Somos Votantes, a group that mobilizes Latino voters for Democrats, says that Republicans have not convinced voters that they have specific answers to the economy. “The concrete is not set yet,” she said recently after a day of door-to-door canvassing in Phoenix. There is still a way to connect with people. Like Way to Win, her group stresses a message that tries to bridge the kitchen tables/values divide: Democrats are committed to providing people opportunities to help them meet their obligation to their families, while Republicans are focused on taking away rights.

At the Union Hall in Portland, Ore., the volunteers of the state’s Democratic Party sat shoulder to shoulder at long tables and used their cell phones to communicate with voters. When President Biden showed up with a pink and white box of doughnuts, the volunteers of the state’s Democratic

Biden’s team first identified Florida as an ideal launching point for his midterm message over the summer. That kickoff was delayed by the president’s Covid-19 diagnosis and scuttled again by Hurricane Ian, so instead Biden has chosen it as the location for a major rally as he makes his closing argument ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

Joe Biden’s Second Rodeo: Democrat Campaigning in the Primaries and at Camp Hale, Colorado, Where Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy Met

“The history books show that an incumbent president is not a boost to their party in their midterms. If Jesus Christ himself were an incumbent president, members of his political party would probably stiff-arm him in a midterm election,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist.

Oregon is a very blue state that Biden carried in the presidential election. “Thank you so much, it was nice winning by 16 points,” Biden said, speaking to the volunteers at a Friday night meeting.

The Democrats are worried about the governor’s race. There’s an independent candidate — a former Democrat — who could peel off enough Democratic votes to open the door for the first Republican governor of Oregon in more than a generation.

Biden and a friend went to Baskin-Robbins the next day to get some ice cream. As he waited for the waffle cone with his double scoop of chocolate chip in it, Biden said he was certain that Kotek would win.

The presidents who held more traditional rallies ahead of the midterms in their first terms were Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

“Biden has held many official events with campaign undertones. Other presidents did this too, but for Biden, it’s his principal mode of campaigning in the leadup to the midterms,” Doherty said.

Biden’s speeches at high-dollar political events have been in high demand, as he helps the DNC raise $292 million through September. Biden shared his presidential campaign list with the DNC at the start of his presidency and it made a huge difference in the midterm elections, where grassroots fundraising broke records.

Some Democratic candidates claim that there are conflicts with Biden coming to town. Republicans have roundly mocked Biden and his party for this. Smith is a Democratic strategist and the author of Any Given Tuesday.

“This is not Joe Biden’s first rodeo. Smith said that Barack Obama was so visible during the 2010 shellacking that it hurt Democrats. He is trying to learn from his mistakes and put himself in the back seat. It’s the best thing for the party.

But there are places where Biden can help the Democrats on the ballot: places where Democrats have a strong advantage in voter registration. In Colorado, Biden designated an important World War II training site, Camp Hale, as a new national monument. He gave Sen. Michael Bennet extra love at the picture- perfect site because he is running for reelection in a tough race.

Biden told the crowd about Bennet’s hard sell to get them to designate the monument, and said “I want Michael to come up here a second.”

Air Force One, Bass, and the New Metro Line: When the U.S. Economy is Going To Hell, It’s Going to Be Red

In Los Angeles, local officials lined up on a blue tape line on the tarmac to greet the president after he walked down the stairs of Air Force One. Karen Bass got a hug with the blue plane in the background as she ran for LA mayor.

The next day, Biden touted the infrastructure law at a construction site for a new metro line, calling Bass the “soon-to-be Ms. Mayor” in a speech where he delivered the core of his midterm message.

“We’re always getting incoming requests,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with the president on Air Force One. Absolutely.” “And of course.” Of course. A lot of good things to talk about.

When elections break, they usually break in one direction. The indicators on my political dashboard are red right now, they’re towards Republicans.

As John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, wrote recently in his newsletter, “inflation is a political wrecking ball for incumbent governments” around the world. Why should the United States be different?

Breaking the Democrat Wave: The New York Times-Siena Confronts the Economic Instability of the Mid-term Elections

The latest New York Times/Siena poll, my colleague Nate Cohn wrote this week, suggests that “the conditions that helped Democrats gain over the summer no longer seem to be in place,” with voters’ sour view of the economy driving the downturn in the party’s prospects.

Democrats had a great summer. The surge in voter registrations was a result of the Dobbs decision. Voters handed Democrats a string of sweet victories in unlikely places — Alaska and Kansas, and good news in upstate New York.

Over the last month or so there’s been a lot of noise and the news is bad for Team Blue. In the latest New York Times/Siena College poll 49 percent of likely voters said they planned to vote for a Republican for Congress, and 45 percent said they planned to vote for a Democrat. Democrats held a one-point lead last month.

Biden and his top aides think there is a path to victory if only a few things can break the Democrats’ way.

Biden summarized the political narrative from a looming Republican wave, to Democratic momentum, to the current moment of Republicans again eying a majority in the House and Senate in the last four days.

Biden spoke at the Democratic National Committee on Monday about the polls. “Republicans ahead. Democrats are ahead. Republicans ahead. I think it will close, I believe Democrats will be ahead in the closing days.

It was a candid acknowledgment of a moment when the Democrats were once again scrambling to come up with a message that could hurt the GOP’s popularity and cause a domino effect.

One Democratic official said that Biden’s comments reflected the view that two weeks from the day votes are counted, Democrats are still in the game.

In a home stretch in which undecided voters historically break against the party out of power, whether that will hold is an outstanding question.

“We’ve managed to suck ourselves back into our own circular firing squad,” one Democratic campaign official said. “It was never as good as people seemed to think it was (at the end of the summer), and it’s not as bad as some are acting now. But it could be if we don’t pull it together.

The weight of that history, not to mention the acute headwinds created by economic unease that continues to rank first among voter concerns in poll after poll, aren’t lost on Biden or his advisers.

The speech Biden gave was deeply personal, reflecting his own view of the mission handed to him. It was also highly political given that the midterm elections, which feature scores of pro-Trump candidates spouting his stolen election nonsense, are only five days away. And it came days after the latest shocking example of political violence – the attack on the 82-year-old husband of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And since Biden launched his 2020 campaign as a quest to save America’s soul from what he sees as the aspiring autocracy of Trump, it was a statement of a mission unaccomplished – as well as a potential opening volley of a possible 2024 showdown for the White House between the 45th and 46th presidents.

Joe Biden: Getting the Word Out of the Miscontent: A New Perspective on the State of the Economy, Jobs, and Social Security

That will start to change in the days ahead, advisers say, with continued insistence that he will hit the road for bigger campaign events after weeks of intentionally smaller scale official events designed to highlight legislative accomplishments.

They point to two factors specifically on that front: gas prices, which have been on a steady downward trajectory for the last two weeks, and the third quarter GDP report, which analysts expect to show robust growth after two quarters of contraction.

Despite the legislative successes of the past year and a fast recovery from the PAIN era, the deficit on the economy will not flip over the next 14 days.

Given the correlation between gas prices and Democratic electoral prospects over the last several months, they see an opportunity at least to make some gains if undecided voters decide to vote at all.

But it is one that has been laid bare in an urgent manner by Republicans in recent weeks whether it is on abortion, popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, or proposals to undermine many of the individual provisions enacted by Biden that polls in favor of Democrats when taken in isolation.

Biden has spent the last several weeks attempting to highlight individual issues officials see as key motivators of base voters they need to turn out in a big way to counter the enthusiasm of the Republicans.

The West Wing viewed a burst of optimism among Democrats after the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights as overly optimistic.

But Democratic Senate candidates in battleground races are all polling with narrow leads or within striking distance. If the Democrats suddenly break away from each other, the Senate can still be held on even if some of the new stars are not able to perform.

Joe Biden’s midterm pitch is increasingly stark and alarmist as he grapples for momentum in an election seemingly slipping away from Democrats that could land him with a Congress inflicting two years of misery on his White House.

The President went to New York to promote manufacturing of Semiconductors in the swing state of New York. The fact that he showed up in a state he won by more than 20 points two years ago shows how his low approval ratings limit his capacity to help his party climb out of a hole.

Biden has resorted to highlighting bright spots of the economy – claiming to have reignited manufacturing, high job creation and a robust effort to compete with China. Many Americans depend on Medicare and Social Security for their retirements, and he warns that Republicans will gut them.

The election environment faced by Democrats, who have their sights set on keeping control of the House of Representatives, is very testing, and as their hopes of clinging onto the Senate diminish, his approach reflected that.

The President’s administration is bracing for a series of Republican investigations into his actions, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and his son’s business affairs, all of which may cause him grievous damage if both chambers are lost.

It is too early to properly judge the race after recent elections as there is a lot of uncertainty. The history of first-term presidents getting lost in the mid-term election may be back with Biden suggesting that the Democrats have the burden in this election.

His speech demonstrated the political impossibility of highlighting undeniably positive aspects of the economy – including hopeful GDP growth figures released Thursday and a historically low jobless rate – when inflation is raging at near 40-year highs.

Biden’s warnings of fierce political fights with Republicans over entitlements and government spending in a possible showdown over raising the debt ceiling, meanwhile, served as a preview for what may be acrimonious years to come in Washington if political control is split between the parties.

They are going to put America in default unless they get their way and cut Social Security and Medicare.

“Nothing will create more chaos or do more damage to the American economy,” the President said, admitting that Democrats always charge Social Security is at risk in elections but also arguing that proposals by Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin this time really do threaten the retirement program.

The issue is that if the measures succeed they won’t affect the election in time. If Biden decides to run for reelection they may be able to assist him in 2024, but they are only aspirational for now.

Some 47% of voters in Wisconsin, 46% in Michigan and 44% in Pennsylvania said that the economy and inflation was the most important issue affecting their vote. In each state, this more than doubled the number of those most exercised about the next-highest-ranking issue – abortion. Democrats had hoped outrage over the Supreme Court decision would have neutralized their economic liabilities heading into the November 8 election.

The race for Governor in New York is unexpectedly competitive, because of the fact that the Republican party hasn’t elected a Republican statewide in two decades. Biden was with Hochul on Thursday in Syracuse, which is also home to a competitive House race.

Dooming Democrats with Inflation: An Empirical Comment on President Barack Obama’s Failure to Win the 2008 Elections and The Case of the Ukraine Conflict

It was hard for the President to claim credit for positive aspects of the economy while empathising with the suffering of many Americans. When he was vice president in the Obama administration, the White House faced a similar problem. The economy was slowly coming back but not all Americans were happy at the same time. In the lead-up to the 2010 elections, President Barack Obama said giving the control of Congress to the Republicans would be similar to giving the keys of the car back to the people who drove it into a ditch. But voters weren’t happy and Republicans seized control of the House and made big gains in the Senate.

High inflation has also always been a toxic force that brews political extremism and tempts some voters to be drawn to demagogues and radicals whose political creed is based on stoking resentment and stigmatizing outsiders.

When a voter does not enough to keep up with their everyday costs, they look for scapegoats, such as meat, bread, and eggs. And Biden, as the president in power, gets the blame.

Democrats used the phrase “Putin’s price hike” to try to mitigate the damage caused by the war in Ukraine. There were attempts to whack Corporate America for price-gouging, as well as scattershot attempts, although some liberals questioned the logic.

In an interview with CNN’s Phil Mattingly on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen counseled patience since many of the measures the administration has taken to boost the economy will take time to come on line.

People are struggling with inflation. I grew up in a community, in a place where when my dad would say, at the end of the month, if you – what you’re making didn’t cover all your expenses, you were in real trouble,” Biden said in a virtual fundraiser this week for Iowa Rep. Cindy Axne, who faces a tough reelection.

His comment shows that Biden understands the problem of dooming Democrats this election season. There is nothing he can do about it.

Biden is holding the rally in Florida largely at the urging of the state’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Gov. Charlie Crist, according to two Democrats familiar with the decision.

A senior Biden adviser said that in Florida you need to hit a Republican in the middle of the campaign to get the president to stick with you. “So, it allows the president to really drive home what’s at stake and what the choice is.”

Scott, the head of the Republican campaign arm, laid out a plan for Medicare and other government programs to be voted on every five years. The state is also home to former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, both likely 2024 presidential candidates whom Democrats have been eager to cast as the faces of a new, more extreme Republican Party.

A second senior Biden adviser argued that Biden’s contrast argument, with Florida as the backdrop, is “even more relevant” in the closing week of the midterms.

The congressman’s plan to either eliminate Social Security and Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicare, or hold it hostage to debt limit negotiations is even more relevant to the voters of Florida and the voters across the country.

In a CNN interview on the eve of Biden’s visit, Crist was effusive in his praise of the president and his willingness to campaign with him as he tries to deny DeSantis reelection.

“He’s the most important man in the world,” Crist said. It is important that he arrives in Florida a week before the election because it shows how important this state is to him.

More than any other issue, Crist said he hoped – and expected – Biden to zero-in on the topic of abortion rights when the president headlines the rally for Crist and Senate nominee Val Demings. DeSantis’ record as governor on the issue speaks for itself, Crist said, adding that abortion rights is the “number one issue” in his race.

When Biden visited Florida last month to tour damage from Hurricane Ian, the president and DeSantis put aside their political differences to emphasize an effective response.

But a few weeks later, the governor made clear Biden was still in his sights as a potential rival, even as he demurred about a potential national run during a debate with Crist.

While Democratic officials insist Biden is first and foremost focused on the upcoming midterms, campaigning on behalf of the Democrat running to unseat DeSantis this week could in part offer a preview of what a Biden-DeSantis matchup could look like in 2024. In a debate last week, DeSantis would not commit to a full four-year term if he were to win reelection.

What do I need to do to succeed in life? was DeSantis first question. That is the same conversation that Trump has with himself,” said Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee.

Joe Biden and the Democratic Threat to the United States: What do we really need from Donald Trump and the next presidential campaign? How many times have we heard about him?

Biden said that more than a dozen campaigns had requested him during the final stretch of the contest and that he was in demand on the campaign trail.

“That’s not true. 15 have been there. He said last week when a reporter suggested he hadn’t been holding many rallies in the final stretch, “count, kid, count.”

Biden knows not every Democratic candidate will welcome him as a surrogate and that’s why he’s privately accepting. He joked that he would campaign for or against his preferred candidate, if he was in a race, and admitted to respecting political intuition when it came to his own races.

But he has grown frustrated at coverage suggesting he is political albatross, according to people familiar with the conversations, arguing his policies – when properly explained – are widely popular with voters.

Democrats said Biden is not in demand from campaigns in competitive races. They claimed rallies are less valuable from an organizing standpoint than they used to be.

He is the most sought after Democrat for the nation’s marquee races. He held rallies in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin over the weekend, and will visit Nevada and Arizona this week.

Biden and Obama will appear together next Saturday to boost the Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Pennsylvania – one place Biden, who was born there, has been welcomed.

On the event side, Biden scaled back battleground state political rallies in favor of political speeches in Washington and official events where he has called attention to his accomplishments – like infrastructure and manufacturing investments – and warned of the Republican alternative.

Americans need to hear Joe Biden’s defense of democracy. Relief from the cost of living is what voters want now from their president.

The speech that Biden gave on Wednesday was a strong election-closing argument because it spoke about Donald Trump and his mob who destroyed Blocks from the US Capitol. But for an election other than the one taking place next week.

In effect, Biden’s stress on the threat to US political institutions posed by Trump essentially asks voters to prioritize the historic foundation of America’s political system over their own more immediate economic fears.

“You have the power, it’s your choice, it’s your decision, the fate of the nation, the fate of the soul of America lies, as it always does, with the people,” Biden told voters.

The elections should be about more than one thing. Voters can walk and chew gum at the same time. The threat to democracy is so real in Washington, that it reminds politicians and media chroniclers of the January 6 horror.

The gut check issue is less about self-government in the heartlands of Pennsylvania, the suburbs of Arizona, and cities everywhere. It’s the more basic one of feeding a family. This election is not about the founding truths of America, but about the cost of groceries in a cart or the price of gas.

The Price of Everything Was Better During Trump, and Why We Can’t Live Without It: The Case of the Former President of the US

RetireePatricia Strong explained to CNN that the price of everything was better during Trump and they were looking forward to retirement.

Declining stock markets have hurt retirement accounts and Americans with credit card debt were hit Wednesday when the Fed raised its short-term borrowing rate by 0.75%. There are fears the Fed’s strategy could pitch the economy into recession and ruin one of the best aspects of the Biden economy – the low unemployment rate.

Biden says that the current election could cause political damage because of the anti-democratic Republican candidates and because inflation and economic damage will fall.

“This year, I hope you’ll make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote, and how you vote,” he said. Will that person accept the outcome of the election? he added, at the end of a campaign in which several GOP nominees have not guaranteed they would accept voters’ will.

It’s not that Biden hasn’t been also talking about high prices. His pitch is that the billions of dollars of spending in his domestic agenda will lower the cost of health care, lift up working families and create millions of jobs. It can’t help the pain being felt right now but things that could happen in the future can.

The president also renewed his call for national unity that he delivered in his inaugural address in front of a still violence-scarred Capitol in 2021. He said that American democracy was being attacked because the former president of the US refused to accept the results of the 2020 election.

“He has abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the Constitution. And he’s made the Big Lie an article of faith in the MAGA Republican Party – a minority of that party,” Biden said, being careful not to insult every GOP voter as he did when referring to “semi-fascism” earlier this year.

The president said that Trump’s threat is much broader now than it was in the 2020 election. “As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America: for governor, Congress, for attorney general, for secretary of state who won’t commit – who will not commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re running in,” the president warned.

A backlash to the first Black presidency of Barack Obama was the catalyst for Trump’s anti-democratic, populist, nationalist appeal to mainly White voters. The 44th president has been making his own searing defenses of democracy and repudiation of Trump on the midterm election campaign trail in recent days.

Inflation and the GOP: What’s next? Democrat rhetoric confronts the 2016 midterm election campaign in New York City and Washington State

Along the way, there were costly communications mistakes. In the spring of 2015, administration economists said that inflation would be gradual. Republicans have not let people forget how optimistic that assessment was.

In remarks on inflation in May, Biden tried out a new phrase: “the ultra-MAGA agenda,” referring to a plan by Senator Rick Scott of Florida that would require Congress to reauthorize spending for Social Security and Medicare. Republicans, including Scott, have distanced themselves from the idea.

But that sentiment may have been an illusion: Polls also indicated that only a third of voters had heard of the new law and that the majority did not believe it would reduce inflation.

Biden has spoken about the economy in speeches far more often than any other subject; he has made 22 appearances since August for midterm-related events, according my count. Progressives complain that Democratic candidates don’t provide enough resources or energy to promote their achievements, nor do they have enough punishment for Republicans who support them.

Democrats are facing a nightmare scenario when they close their election campaign on Monday, with Republicans showing their opposition to the struggling President and his failed efforts to tame inflation.

It’s too early for postmortems. Forty million Americans have cast their votes. And the uncertainty baked into modern polling means no one can be sure a red wave is coming. Democrats could still cling onto the Senate even if the House falls.

Democrats are defending blue territory from New York to Washington state, which offers a clear picture of GOP strength.

A nation split down the middle politically, which is united only by a sense of dissatisfaction with its trajectory, is getting into a habit of repeatedly using elections to punish the party with the most power.

The Trump-President Controversy in Washington During the 2016 Presidential Insurrection: Predictions for a Good Night

According to the chair of the Republican National Committee on Sunday, the Democrats were in fact crime deniers and education deniers.

“I’m a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just think that we are – we did not listen to voters in this election. I think we are going to have a bad night, that is what I believe.

The scars of the US Capitol insurrection are felt very strongly in Washington, DC. And it is undeniably important because the survival of the world’s most important democracy is at stake. The tradition of peaceful power transfers between presidents was challenged by an insurrection that was incited by Trump.

The premise of his domestic presidency and his entire political career has been based on restoring the balance of the economy and restoring a measure of security to working and middle class Americans. His legislative achievements could bring down the cost of health care for seniors and make a green economy that shields Americans from high energy prices during times of global turmoil. The benefits of such measures will take a long time to arrive. And millions of voters are hurting now and haven’t heard a viable plan from the president to quickly ease prices in the short-term.

The Republicans have proposed to extend the Trump-era tax cuts and mandate new energy drilling but it is not certain if this will have an impact on the inflation crisis. A stalemate between two dueling economic visions would likely be caused by a divided government. The election turned into a way for voters to stress their frustration with no hope that things will get better soon.

There is very little a president can do to lower inflation on their own. The Federal Reserve is in the lead and the central bank’s strategy of rising interest rates could trigger a recession that could further haunt Biden’s presidency.

The Republican Party also got exactly what it wanted as Trump has delayed his expected campaign announcement until after the midterms, depriving Biden of the opportunity to shape this election as a direct clash with an insurrectionist predecessor whom he beat in 2020 and who remains broadly unpopular. The president could have won over voters who still dislike the twice impeached former president by having a confrontation with him.

Any incoming GOP majority would be dominated by pro-Trump radicals. The chairs of future committees have already signaled that they will do their best to distract from Trump’s culpability on the January 6, 2021, insurrection in order to get at the Justice Department which is currently investigating the ex President’s conduct. And Tuesday’s election could usher in scores of election deniers in state offices who could end up controlling the 2024 presidential election in some key battlegrounds. State legislature’s GOP dominance could affect voting rights.