President Joe Biden witnessed the best midterm elections for any president in two decades after the projected Republican “red wave” missed its mark on Election Day.
Both chambers of Congress are up in the air, with Republicans holding 207 seats compared to Democrats’ 184, with a majority of 218 needed. The Senate remains a toss-up, with Republicans holding 49 seats and Democrats, including two independents, holding 48. Senate races in Arizona and Nevada, as well as Georgia, which went to a runoff, will determine the majority.
Biden wrote in a tweet on Thursday that the Democratic Party lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any other Democratic president’s first midterm in at least 40 years and had the best outcome for governor races since 1986.
“The American people spoke,” he wrote.
RED WAVE CRASHES INTO BLUE WALL: FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM A BOMBSHELL MIDTERMS ELECTION NIGHT
We lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in at least 40 years.
And we had the best midterms for Governors since 1986.
The American people spoke.
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 9, 2022
Even if Democrats lose all three outstanding Senate races, they still will have only lost two Senate seats. President Barack Obama lost nine Senate seats in 2014 and six in 2010. He also lost 13 House seats in 2014 and 63 seats in 2010.
This is the most successful midterm election for Democrats since President Bill Clinton retained the same number of Senate seats while also picking up five House seats in 1998.
President George W. Bush had a successful midterm election in 2002, picking up two Senate seats and eight House seats. However, this could be attributed to an unusual surge in support for the president, as the midterm elections were one year after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democrats need to win two of the three remaining races to secure a majority in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto 49.4% to 47.6%. Democrat Mark Kelley leads in Arizona with 51.4% of the vote compared to Republican Blake Masters’s 46.4%. Georgia’s Senate race will go to a runoff after neither Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker received 50% of the vote.
