MIDTERMS. Elections are organized on November 8 in the United States. Why are Americans going to vote? What are the issues ? Explanations.
Two years after Joe Biden was elected president of the country, Americans are once again being called to the polls. Important elections are organized in the United States on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 with the holding of the midterms. About 240 million people have to choose between various candidates for several elective offices, both nationally and locally. A democratic meeting that could shake up President Joe Biden. What exactly are these elections? How can they shake up the political situation in the United States? Our answers to your questions about these midterms 2022.
What are midterms?
In the United States, Americans are called to the polls much more often than the French. Thus, every two years, voters must elect the 435 deputies who sit in the House of Representatives. In 2022, Americans will vote for what is called the midterms, in other words, the midterm elections. Just 24 months after deciding the composition of the lower house of Congress (Parliament, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate) in the wake of the election of Joe Biden, they must once again vote to elect those and those who will represent their state’s district for the next two years.
But that’s not all. On the occasion of these midterms, the Americans must also renew a third of the Senate, as is customary every two years, either during the presidential election or during the midterms. In 2022, 35 senators will challenge their seats.
Moreover, at the local level, many elections are also organised: those of governors in 36 States, of attorneys general in 30, of legislative elections in most of the States or even referendums on various subjects, abortion to modern slavery, in six of them.
The US midterms will take place in November. Unlike the legislative elections in France and unlike almost all the elections we know, they will take place on a single date… and in the middle of the week! Thus, American voters will go to the polls on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 to elect their new deputies as well as some of their senators.
With 435 seats to be filled in the House of Representatives, it is at least twice as many candidates as the United States has for this election, with at least one representative from the Democrats and one from the Republicans. To which must be added several dozen independent candidates. There are therefore around a thousand people who aspire to become MPs. On the side of the Senate, 35 seats are to be filled. At least 70 applications will therefore be submitted, but the final figure should be around a hundred.
In the United States, the Parliament is organized as in France, with two elected chambers: on the one hand, the Chamber of Representatives (number of seats proportional to the population of each State); on the other, the Senate (one representative per State). A Parliament (called Congress in the United States) which runs the country alongside the president of this federal state.
Since 2020, the latter has been Joe Biden. The resident of the White House (the American Elysée) was elected with the Democratic label and also has a majority, by a very short head, in the House of Representatives (220 deputies against 210 Republicans), led by Nancy Pelosi, and in the Senate, led by Kamala Harris (50 Democratic senators, plus Kamala Harris, and 50 Republicans).
Why can midterms turn everything upside down?
If the Democrats were to become a minority in the House of Representatives and/or the Senate, Joe Biden would be put in difficulty because to pass a law, the ratification of the text by both chambers is necessary. However, if the opposition is in the majority, it will be difficult to have them adopted. In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has almost always swung into the camp of opposition to midterms.
Understand the challenges of Midterms:
In the United States, the political division is much simpler than in France. Only two main parties compete in each election: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is rather related to the left, but also to the center. It is the formation of Joe Biden, the president, but also the one who holds power in the House of Representatives (National Assembly) and in the Senate. In history, ex-presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama have all been elected with this label.
The Democratic Party faces the Republican Party, classified on the right, of conservative leanings. Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Senior and Son, and Trump have been Republican Presidents of the United States since the end of World War II. Currently, the Republican Party is not at the head of any political institution of power.