MIDTERMS. Elections will take place in the United States in 2022. In a few months, voters will (already) have to vote again to elect their deputies and some of the senators. Issues, date, poll results… Here’s what you need to know about midterms.
After France, the United States. It is now across the Atlantic that an electoral campaign opens in 2022 with a new election of deputies and part of the senators, two years after the arrival of Joe Biden as president and the election, already , of the House of Representatives. Mid-term, this ballot, called “midterms”, is a major challenge for the tenant of the White House. Will the American Parliament always be won over to his cause? Nothing is less sure. Because the octogenarian settled in his oval office as president in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, not allowing him to initiate major social reforms, before seeing his action be turned upside down by the war in Ukraine, he who had also ordered a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
And while midterm elections are generally unfavorable to the incumbent president, his blunders and the debate over his advanced age to hold such office should not work in his favor. However, the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to repeal the constitutional right to abortion could tip the balance towards his camp, that of the Democrats, the decision of this conservative institution having been widely criticized by Joe Biden and his left. The latter are betting on a victory in the House of Representatives and the Senate to try to protect this right. Will the fight on this subject be enough to allow the President of the United States to retain the parliamentary majority? Moreover, the memory of the assault on the Capitol by pro-Trumps refusing to recognize the election results in January 2021 could help Joe Biden and his troops. Here’s what you need to know about midterms.
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, the equivalent of the National Assembly in France. 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.
When will the midterms take place in 2022?
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.
House of Representatives, Senate… What is the political situation in the United States?
In the United States, Parliament is organized as in France, with two elected chambers: on the one hand, the House of Representatives, which is the American counterpart of the National Assembly; on the other, the Senate, identical to the one we know. 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).
By Democrat and Republican Party, what does that mean?
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. Historically, 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 father 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.
What are the poll results for the 2022 midterms?
The 2022 midterm polls are tight. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans are only separated by a few points in the voting intentions. In mid-July, two polls estimated them in a pocket handkerchief for the House of Representatives ballot. A Yougov survey, carried out among 1,500 adults, gave victory to the Republicans with 37.51% of the vote, against… 37.23% for the Democrats. During the same period, Quinnipiac University, which questioned 1,523 people, credited the Republicans with 44% of the vote, against 43% for the Democrats.
Equally tight results for the Senate were published since Yougov gave the Democrats ahead of the Republicans in the upper house (36.03% against 35.75%), while Quinnipiac University posted the two formations at the same level, with 44% of the vote.