Over the past week, our social media feeds have been flooded by the US midterm elections. Even though this is happening overseas, there important lessons and stories to learn for UK students.
With the crucial support of almost 50 million young Americans who were eligible to vote in the 2026 midterm elections, they helped the Democratic win of the Senate and the House. Many long-term Republican seats were flipped despite Trump dismissing claims that the results were a reflection of his performance- he claimed he would have “won in a landslide” if he had been on the ballot. Trump’s response to the breakdown is his past supporters’ votes shows how those in power struggle to come to terms whilst their supporters lose faith in them and are sending a message.
Through flipping seven Senate seats and over forty House seats, the Democrats saw their views being spread across the country. Having obtained control in both the Senate and the House the Democrats are in a position to dispute Trump’s office and its policies.Democrats won over historically Republican seats, including Kansas and Texas which have not been elected to have a Democratic senator in decades. This brings forth the question: why were states who supported Trump two years ago voting for the opposition party. Research points to cost of living and general loss of confidence and dislike of Trump. For young voters, everyday affordability was a main concern which even UK students can relate to regarding our own cost of living crisis. The main thing to learn from this is that young people obtain the power to create big shocks and changes within institutions- when we act as a collective, people in power have to listen to us.
One of the notable victories were of Abdul El-Sayed, elected to be Michigan’s Senator, who won despite having faced Islamophobic claims against him. He defeated former Congressman Mike rogers by about 7 points. His victory exemplifies how we can persevere even when we are actively facing backlash. It is important to note that when young people, especially students, feel pessimistic about the future political landscape, it is an even greater sign to share our worries with each other and to come together to assemble and support political groups and individual representatives that have people like us in their minds to support.
Compared to the UK’s 2024 General Election, an estimated 37% of 18 to 24 year-olds voted, compared to 47% in 2019. Many young people in the UK are frustrated at the government for so many different reasons. If we adopt the young Americans’ method, we could lay down the foundation to create some change.
It only takes a couple of minutes to register to vote. We have seen first-hand recently how young people coming together can break down those who hold a lot of power.