Today is Election Day. Usually midterm elections are important, but you probably can’t find a more important midterm election in modern history. The control of the House and Senate are at stake, and we have several candidates from the Democratic Socialists of America. 

America is divided, and that has intensified the stakes in this election. Republicans control the House and Senate by slim majorities, and that has also intensified the stakes in this election. And the losing party is likely to charge the other party with voter fraud, voter suppression, and a variety of other offenses. That has also intensified the stakes in this election.

America has had lots of close elections, even at the presidential level. In 2000, George W. Bush led Al Gore in Florida after the first results were tallied, but the outcome of the election essentially came from the Supreme Court. In 2016, Donald Trump won three swing states by a mere 77,744 votes. In 2020, Joe Biden won three swing states by 42,844 votes. And controversy surrounded both of those elections.

In 2024, we had a clear winner because Donald Trump won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes and won seven swing states. But it is worth mentioning that he won in five of those swing states by less than 3 points.

Midterm elections are different. Historically, the president’s party usually loses seats during midterm elections. This has been true in 20 of the last 22 midterm elections. Tonight we will be watching what happens in the 435 House races and the 35 Senate races. And there are 36 governor’s races along with thousands of state house and state races and local races.

We will have lots to talk about as the election returns begin coming in.