The midterm elections have been underway over the course of the past few months, and there have been many unexpected results on both sides. There have been changes to certain policies and many surprises to unfold.
One of the predictions going into the Midterms was the expected red wave. This projection was made due to inflation as well as other issues such as problems at the border and rise in crime. Many Republican voters and candidates shared talk show host Tucker Carlson’s opinion that “the democrats know they’re about to get crushed.”
However, that didn’t come to fruition. In fact rather than gaining seats the Republican Party lost a seat. And while as of now they still hold the majority, it is only by one seat. While these unexpected results did leave some Republicans disappointed, as former President Trump put it: “I really think we had great candidates that performed very well.” Then, speaking of his announcement Tuesday to run for President, he said, “Why should anything change?”
There is still a pending runoff election for Georgia’s senator, since neither candidate reached the legal majority vote in Georgia. This could prove to either give the Republicans one more seat or completely split the entire senate with two unaffiliated runners.
The House results for the Republicans on the other hand, while not huge, still have a lead of about six seats, the Democrats losing nine seats and the Republicans gaining eight.
Overall the results for just Utah are these:
Republican Mike Lee remains our senator with a vote percentage of 53.2%. His contender, Evan McMullin who ran unaffiliated, ended with only a voter percentage of 42.7%. Our four representatives for the House are also as follows: Blake Moore, Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Bruges Owens.
With the House and the Senate being more or less split, any policy changes are predicted to be much harder to pass. Which, to be fair, is kind of the whole point! If the policy is really something good, then it should be something we can all agree on or at the very least compromise.
Overall we are just going to have to wait and see for ourselves how this is all going to play out, and hope for the best.
– by Ella Hughes (18) Panguitch
Feature image caption: The expected “red wave” did not happen this year, and the Senate is more split than the country expected.
Ella Hughes – Panguitch
Ella Hughes is a junior journalist and editor at The Byway. She has recently graduated from Panguitch High School and has written for The Byway for two years now. Her favorite topics to write about are history as well as present-day local events. In her free time she enjoys singing, watching movies, reading books, and spending time with her family she adores.
Ella is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is serving in the Philippines Tacloban Mission.